The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has pulled a sharp U-turn in a long-running murder case, telling a federal judge it no longer backs its own earlier recommendation to overturn Dennis Johnson’s 2007 conviction. The new position, filed this month by senior prosecutors, accuses a prior filing of mischaracterizing witness testimony and now argues the conviction should stand.
In a motion filed June 5, the Law Division told the court, “The Commonwealth respectfully requests leave to withdraw its prior response and apologizes to the Court for the errors,” per CourtListener. The filing says undersigned counsel discovered the office’s earlier response “contained material misstatements” about witness testimony and concluded that relief on Johnson’s claim was not warranted.
As reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, the new filing was signed by David Napiorski, Steven Wildberger, Peter Andrews and Katherine Ernst, and it highlights errors in a 2022 request submitted by assistant ADA Jaclyn Mason. Magistrate Judge Lynne A. Sitarski had recommended tossing Johnson’s conviction after that earlier filing, and U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond has an evidentiary hearing on the calendar for July to hear eyewitness testimony. Nilam Sanghvi of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project said she and her colleagues will continue advocating for Johnson’s freedom…