Civil Rights Law Firm Files Wrongful Conviction Federal Complaint
PHILADELPHIA, November 15 (Williams Cedar Law Firm) – Today, Williams Cedar filed a civil rights wrongful conviction federal complaint on behalf of Marcus Perez, who was released from prison in January, 2021, after serving more than 30 years for a shooting he committed as a teenager.
As alleged in the complaint, Perez pleaded guilty to a charge of murder only because the trial judge suggested that doing so would lead to a sentence that would render him eligible for parole after 15 years. As the judge later agreed, this advice was erroneous, as the crime for which Perez was convicted in 1990 carried a mandatory life sentence with no parole.
The complaint alleges that Perez’s attempts to appeal the sentence were frustrated because a lawyer then serving as an Assistant District Attorney wrongfully caused the transcript of the sentencing hearing to be altered so as to mischaracterize the judge’s advice. Perez was only able to establish the former ADA’s intent in 2019, when the District Attorney’s office reverse a longstanding policy, and permitted Perez’s attorneys to review its file, which contained a contemporaneous handwritten note from the former ADA that a “new and improved” transcript was needed. The District Attorney’s Office concurred with Perez’s argument that this newly discovered evidence required that Perez’s sentence be vacated, as his 1990 guilty plea was involuntary.
By opening its files and concurring in Marcus Perez’s request that his unfairly imposed life sentence be vacated, the District Attorney’s office took an important step toward providing him with long-awaited justice. This lawsuit aims to complete that process by obtaining compensation for Marcus’s suffering and inappropriate punishment.
The wrongful conviction lawsuit seeks damages against the former ADA under 42 U.S.C Sec. 1983, a federal civil rights statute, and against Perez’s original defense attorney who failed to correct the trial judge’s advice, or inform Perez of its consequences.
Williams Cedar partner Gerald Williams said, “By opening its files and concurring in Marcus Perez’s request that his unfairly imposed life sentence be vacated, the District Attorney’s office took an important step toward providing him with long-awaited justice. This lawsuit aims to complete that process by obtaining compensation for Marcus’s suffering and inappropriate punishment.”
Stu Bykofsky, a former columnist with The Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer, covered Mr. Perez’s case with almost a dozen columns going back to 2011. Read his post about this latest development.
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