November 7, 2024 • 36 mins
On October 27, 1997, a man was robbed and killed in Philadelphia, PA. Due to mistaken eyewitness identification, 19-year-old Tyree Wallace was implicated in the crime. Tyree was convicted of second-degree murder, robbery, conspiracy, and possession of an instrument of crime and sentenced to life in prison.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
On October twenty sixth, nineteen ninety seven, a group of
Philadelphia teenagers planned a robbery that took place the following
night at a local Delhi. After closing up, the deli owner,
mister John Sue Kang, was held up and fatally shot
in front of the store. After canvassing the neighborhood, police
(00:23):
were unable to find out who had pulled the trigger,
but finding those who were part of the conspiracy was
a much easier task. Those present at the October twenty
sixth meeting were willing to testify against three neighborhood kids,
one of whom was Tyree Wallace. Despite a wide age
gap between Tyree and his co defendants, as well as
(00:44):
multiple false testimonies exposed that trial, Tyree was sentenced to
life without parole. But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction
has always gave voice to innocent people in prison, and
now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us at
(01:05):
eight three three two O seven four six sixty six
and tell us how these stories make you feel and
what you've done to help the cause, even if it's
something as simple as telling a friend or sharing on
social media, and you might just hear yourself in a
future episode call us eight three three two oh seven
four six sixty six. Welcome back to ronfel Conviction, where
(01:36):
another Philadelphia case has come to our attention, in which
our guest, Tyree Wallace, was not tied to the October
nineteen ninety seven crime scene. But when you're prosecuted for
felony murder in the second degree, you don't have to be.
And we'll look get into what that means in a minute,
But first let me introduce Tyree, who's joining us from
a Pennsylvania correctional facility, a place he doesn't belong in.
(01:58):
He never belonged there. But Tyree, thank you for calling in.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You're welcome, thank you for doing and.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Here with us to help share this harrowing story. His attorney,
David Perry, thanks for having me so, Tyree, you grew
up in Philadelphia in the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Right, yes, I did. I was born at Children's Hospital.
My mother lived on Cleveland Street in South Philadelphia, but
she had an alcohol addiction, and as a result of that,
I bounced back and forth between she my father, sometimes
my grandmother. But South Philadelphia. It was pleasant enough, but
it was starting to go downhill a little bit based
off of drugs in the community, but at its core
(02:37):
was still good decent people. For the most part.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
What you had at that time is a war on drugs,
aggressive policing, fear in the community about recidivism, some headline
making situations that caused a bit of a pendulum swing
to an extremely aggressive police and district attorney approach to
(03:01):
crime in the city of Philadelphia in the late nineties,
where a lot of people would say that there was
more of an emphasis on clearing cases than there was
on finding justice.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And these are familiar touchdowns for the crack epidemic era
and it's aftermath all throughout this country, with most citizens
just barely surviving both the crime that emanated from this
scourge as well as a police force that acted with impunity,
and the communities pulled through on the strength of folks
like the victim in this case, mister John Sukang Rest
(03:33):
in peace.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He was just the giant in our community. He ran
the Salt and Peperative Deli on Seventeenth in Ellsworth and
most of the other Korean American establishments in South Philly.
They normally only hired other people from the Korean American community,
with the John intentionally hired from the people who lived
(03:56):
in South Philly. The store had a familiar feel as
a result of that intentionality. But then you had a
bunch of people with jobs who would not otherwise have
them if not for mister John.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But not everyone is a pillar of the community, like
the armed young man or men potentially even boys who
may or may not have conspired to rob mister John.
As he closed up shop one night in the Salt
and Pepper Deli.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
At that time of night, there is mister Kang working there,
of course, and there is Levanne Griffin, the clerk. Levan
Griffin talked of three individuals, perhaps including a woman, come
in moments or minutes before the murder. They leave as
they're closing up the shop as they would normally do.
(04:42):
Mister Kang is holding a bag of money. Levan Griffin
has already exited the store, heading towards home, and mister
Kang heads towards his car. Levan Griffin hears a loud bang,
turns around and sees mister Kang having fallen to the ground.
Levan Griffin takes off running. There was never really any
(05:06):
physical evidence. There's no DNA element to this case, and
Levan Griffin spoke with detectives soon after this. Griffin could
gives some statement about somebody shorter and more heavy set
or chunkier than Tyree and also darker skinned. Lavan said,
they told me the people who walked into the store
(05:26):
right before closing were involved in the shooting, and I
personally had no knowledge of this.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We're really not sure where they got that information, considering
that the loan witness had just told them that he'd
only seen one shooter. Perhaps they were trying to get
him to identify the people who had come into the
store since he had actually seen them and could then
serve as a reliable eyewitness regardless of if those folks
were involved or not. Now we're really not sure of
their motives other than the significant pressure on them to
(05:54):
close this case.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It was the absolute talk of the neighborhood, and I
remember thinking clearly that they are going to absolutely bury
somebody for this, and that would be justified. I'm like,
who would do this to mister King?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Right?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The Korean American community was in an uproar, and rightfully so,
about what happened to missus John Young's who came and
they were demanding results. The officer, Charles Boyle and others
and my cads decided that we're going to get a conviction.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So the police began canvassing the neighborhood and putting pressure
on a number of neighborhood kids. Raheem Shackelford, Matthew Corporu,
James Davis, the first two of whom ended up becoming
Tyree's co defendants.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So I was from a block that was called nineteenth
and eighty. All of these guys you just named were
all guys from seventeenth Street. Now, while there's not a
great distance, it was to rivaling communities that wouldn't have
anything to do with each other. All of the guys
again that you just named, were all fifteen year olds
and fourteen year olds. I was nineteen years old. We
(06:57):
weren't in the same social circles. We were from rivaling community.
These we just did not interact.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But there was one source from Tyree's social circle that
helped the police link him with Raheem Shackelford and Matthew Corporal.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
An associate of mine at the time, Brian Brooks had
a girlfriend named Tracy Drayton. Tracy's nephew was Matthew Corporal.
On one occasion at Tracy Dreaton's house, I was introduced
into Matthew Corporrew we shook Haynes never saw him again
until I was on trial with him for a robbery.
Howm is that?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And the narrative eventually became Tyree and Brian attended a
planning meeting with these fourteen year olds the day prior
October twenty six, But no one is exactly sure of
how this narrative came to be.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm not exactly sure if I'll ever really know the
order of events. I think there is a degree I
suppose of going to the usual suspects, and I think
one person pointed to another and it just sort of
became what a lot of these guys have said is
sort of any two will do. And when it got
to a point where they found that had any two
(08:01):
or in this case three, they could clear the case
and sell it to the jury. But they sort of
ricochet off of each other. They knew Brian Brooks was
a bad actor because he had about four other robberies.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Interestingly, while under investigation for those robberies, Brian Brooks was
arrested just hours before this robbery homicide for an unrelated charge,
allegedly with information to trade on So.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
At four point fifty pm he's in custody and they're
interviewing him about the list of crimes. The murder takes
place later that night. Now it's not like Brian says,
I'm aware that something's going to go down tonight, So
there's no foreshadowing by Brian Brooks. In December, when Brian
Brooks is questioned by the police, he says he knows
(08:48):
nothing about the murder. Brian Brooks's December and police statement
is never written down. It's only ever talked about. But
how do we know that it occurred? At least we
believe it occurred because Brian Brooks would be questioned in
a police statement which is written down in February of
nineteen ninety eight, which basically begins with the police saying, Brian,
(09:11):
you're here to talk to us on your own free will. Yes,
it's about the murder of John King. Well, we interviewed
you in December. You said you didn't know anything about it, right, Yes,
that was a lie, right, Yes, why are you coming
now to tell us what you know, Well, because there's
a rumor going around that me and my brother had
something to do with it, and I don't like that. However,
(09:33):
the police knew that couldn't possibly have been plausible because
they could have easily said, well, Brian, of course you
had nothing to do with it. You were in custody.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So even his alleged motive to come forward was incredible.
In fact, Brooks had a much more credible motive for
making this statement.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Brian Brooks was a court for a whole host of
arm robberies. Each arm robbery had assault and we shortages
of takes to him, and Brian was facing two hundred
to four hundred years and so Brian helped these officers
in multiple different cases that he just didn't have knowledge about.
He was just willing to say whatever needed to be
said to take two hundred to four hundred years down
(10:15):
to five years.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Brian Brooks would go into excruciating detail about the planning
of the murder. On the day before the murder that
Tyree and others came by James Davis's house. They're talking
all about this big plan for the following night, and
if this is to be believed, the day of the murder,
(10:37):
Brian is being questioned in custody, ostensibly about a variety
of crimes. He's not trying to work that down by saying, well,
I've got something for you. There's something going down tonight.
He doesn't do that. Fast forward. Now it's February, and
not only does he know everything, he knew it the
day before it happened.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Now, how is that? That's a good question now. By
this time, James Davis also made a statement about them
where he allegedly declined an invitation from Tyree Wallace and
Raheem Shackleford to participate, that Matthew Corporal and Raheem Shackleford
showed him a soft off shotgun shortly before the crime,
and that Shackleford told him that they got one hundred
dollars off mister King. In addition, Matthew Corporal admitted to
(11:17):
being a lookout and implicated Shackleford and Tyree, and then
the police went to Lvan Griffin with a photo array
featuring Tyree, Corporal and Shackleford.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And Lavan Griffin had his own issues and would later
say that he was basically harassed by the police, and
his testimony would later be a very weak and loose
attempt to identify assailants. It was some loose reference to
having a similar bust or a similar body because Levanne
(11:51):
Griffin didn't see the shooting.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
All of this together was enough to charge Tyree Wallace,
Matthew Corporal, and Raheem Shackleford with conspiracy to commit robbery
and second degree felony murder, and Tyree was arrested on
February twentieth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, I was at my father's house in the phone ring.
My father answered the phone upstairs. The ass was Tyrie there,
and he calls down and says, Tyree cook up the
phone and the front door gets kicked in.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I get arrested once.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I get there. I was being interviewed by Detective Charles Boyle,
and again I'm nineteen years old. Nervous is on him,
so I say to him, I said, listen, sir, you
have the one person I had nothing to do with
the grown. So he looked behind him and closed the door,
turned around, looked me right in my eyes and said,
you know what he said. I believe you said. I
(12:43):
don't give a fuck.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You're listening to ron for conviction. You can listen to
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Speaker 2 (13:14):
In the commission of a felony, if anybody has killed
everybody involved in that conspiracy, it receives a life sentence.
So what people like Charles Boyle has been able to
do is to weaponize that law. So he wasn't guessing
this was a blueprint that he was so confident that
(13:37):
he was just willing to reveal it to me. He said,
let me tell you what the rest of your life
is going to look like. You're gonna spend the next
two years at CFCF then you're gonna get convicted of
second degree murder. They never had to accuse me of
killing mister King. They never had to accuse anyone of
killing mister King. All they had to do was convince
a jury that these three young black men who didn't
(14:00):
know each other, we're in a conspiracy to roy mister King,
and as a result of that, he died and everybody
gets a life sentence.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Rahim Shaka Ford says that when he goes into a
courtroom for the first time to see Tyree, he says
who's that guy?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And as Tyree said earlier, he had only met Matthew
Karprou once in passing. Nevertheless, just like detective Boil predicted,
Tyree awaited trial for nearly two years and he was
tried along with his co defendants in October nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So I did have a quarter pointed attorney, Daniel Green,
and in retrospect, having some standing of how the system
works when you think about the fact that the courts
are in business and the de's are in business of
punishing crime, of getting convictions. So when they are appointing
you a coin appointed attorney, your immediate thought and this
(14:51):
person is here to save the day, and that's not
necessarily the case. This person is here to meet the
standard of right he or she he had representation, and
a lot of times they are there to help facilitate
this process. And nothing stood out more to me than
during the trial when my father said he came into
(15:11):
a courtroom and Daniel Green and Evan Luiz, who was
the discrease fired eighty A in my case, were just
like just chumming it up. So my father went in,
put the money together to get a paid attorney, put
in a motion to have this attorney come on. This
was two days before trial, and the judge said, well, listen,
I can't stop you from bringing in a paid attorney,
(15:33):
but I am not postponing this trialdy. So the attorney
has two days to learn his keys.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So they stuck with Daniel Green, and it appears that
every state's witness was coerced and or incentivized.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The narrative in the theory of the crime is that
shackle Ford and Tyree Wallace accost Kang, shoot him take
his money, with corporal present as a lookout, and Griffin
hears it. He turns around quickly enough to see mister
Kang slump onto the ground, and he takes off running scared.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Remember, the state's narrative was that the assailants had entered
the store before the crime. Now le Van Griffin was
coerced into making IDs with the threat of his own charges.
In addition, he had seen only one shooter, who he
described as short, chubby, and dark skinned. Tyree is six ' too,
slim and light skinned. Yet Griffin still id Shackelford and Tyree,
(16:34):
so Tyree's lawyer was able to impeach Griffin on cross He.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Read the description though, and as you pointed out, I
was the polar opposite not only height but weight, skin color.
Danny Green asked Levan Griffin directly, are you saying that
my client is the person that came into the store.
His response is, no, he fit the description. So my
lawyer said, listen, you're honor, please tell him to stop
(16:59):
singing it and just answer my question. So my lawyer
asked him again, are you saying that he's the person
who came into the store. He's saying, no, he fit
the description. So he said, you're honor, please make him
stop saying that. So the court stipulates that this was
not an identification, that it was something lesser.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Dan, You had Matthew Corporu, who claimed to be a lookout,
but his statement presented a familiar constitutional issue. Corporal has
his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, and conversely, his
co defendants have the right to confront their accuser. So
to satisfy everyone's rights, they had a redacted version of
Corporal's statement read into the record.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
They put Charles Boyle on the stain who read his
statement into evidence, where he would say, me and two
guys planned to do this robbery. So it's three people
in proud He's saying, me and two guys. The fact
that this detective is reading this into the evidence gives
it validity.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And even though Tyree and Shackle for his names were
carefully left out, Levang had made his identification. However, impeachd
may have been and remember to convict them of conspiracy
and second degree fellowing murder. They didn't have to prove
who killed mister King.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
I didn't realize that the DA wasn't even trying to
prove a legitimate connection between me and the scene. She
was only trying to convince these twelve people that these
three young black men were in a conspiracy to rob
mister King. Now that was not true, obviously, but that's
a much lower standard.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So they heard testimony about the October twenty sixth planning meeting,
starting with James Davis and his mother Sonya Godfrey.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
His mother, I think lied on the stand about time
of day and what she said. When she turns out
she was at work and wasn't even home, and so
she was caught in her lie. It sort of smelled
like an effort to shield James Davis from being sucked
into this whole thing, and it sounds like it worked.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
When she was court in Alie, she said that they
made her say it. She didn't want to see it. Then,
when her son undercrossed examination, said that the police harassed him,
that they brought him and his mother to the station
three or four.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Times for whatever reasons. James Davis never became engulfed in
the police's efforts back then, but there's seemingly a pretty
consistent chorus of people who are incredulous of what James
Davis had to say.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
James Davis said that at the planning meeting, Shackelford and
Tyree asked him to participate, but he declined, and then
Shackelford and Corporu showed him a shot off shotgun prior
to the crime and after the fact told him that
they only got one hundred dollars from mister King. And
then Brian Brooks also claimed to have witnessed the meeting
and that after the crime, Tyree told him that Shackelford
(19:46):
was the shooter.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Brian tells this story and then after he's finished giving
his testimony, he goes back to the holding area of
the courtroom and he turns to Sheriff John Hamilton and
he says to the sh sheriff, Hey, Sheriff, what's the
penalty for perjury? And the sheriff says a three to
five years.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Why.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
It's like, well, I just lied up there. They made
me say that. So the sheriff goes and reveals to
the judge what this witness has just said to him
within minutes of testifying. In this case, there would be
some delay there. The sheriff told me that. As that
was all unfolding, some of the other police around actually
(20:27):
said to the sheriff like, what are you an inmate lover?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
An inmate lover?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
It was clearly very revealing about the culture in which
a lot of these guys operated, and Sheriff Hamilton was like, no,
I know right from wrong. I have to tell the court.
So they brought the sheriff on the stand. They brought
Brian Brooks back on the stand, and that's when the
Assistant DA basically said to Brian Brooks, hold on a minute,
what happens to people who tell on other people in prison?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
What are they?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
They're snitches? So you're just really worried about being a snitch, right,
Your testimony was accurate.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Realized that the DA did a lot of things in
that trial that she wasn't supposed to do as a prosecutor.
But now I understand the purpose of it. The way
she was able to explain Brian Brooks's recantation was just
not true. But she did these things over and over again.
She had a pattern in practice. So I need people
(21:21):
to understand DH they have immunity for doing anything. They
have to be seriously corrupt in order to get fired,
and she wound up being fired.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
But that was many years after it would have done
Tyree any good. Meanwhile, the attorneys for all three were
able to expose inconsistencies and falsehoods from Levon Griffin, James Davis,
and Sonia Godfrey, followed by Brian Brooks's in court recantation,
and then Tyree's alibi. Witnesses told the jury where he
was that night.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
He was at Damon Milligan's house with Damon Milligan's mother
and girlfriend. But this house that they used to hang
out with was a bit of a party, not exactly
the most credible witness to put in front of a jury.
They were easily discredited by the DA's office. So the
alibi just sort of frittered away.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It also didn't clear him from the October twenty sixth meeting.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
There was another witness who would never be called Jonathan Muldrew.
Mouldrew had gone down and spoken to either the DA
or Summon in the office and he actually expected to
be somehow called as a witness by the prosecution. Muldrow
was at James Davis home where this supposed the planning
(22:37):
session took place, and Muldrow was like, no, I'll tell
you the truth, and who was there and who wasn't there.
Muldrow professes Tyree's innocence and complete uninvolvement. Tyree's lawyer tried
to get Muldrow to come testify, and Muldrow was in
the hospital, and there's an exchange where the judge says, look,
(22:59):
i'll help you help, I'll serve a subpoena, will get
him to the court if you need him testify, and
they just gave.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Up, just gave up on the independent witness who could
have destroyed the planning meeting evidence, so that left only
his alibi witnesses against cor Pru's redacted statement. The Van
Griffins lesser than id supported by the parade of discredited
state's witnesses.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
To me and the people who supported me, it seemed
like an absolute no brainer. When people are being court
and lies, when people were saying they didn't want to say,
the DA made me saying when people are recanting like
at Troud, this stuff is happening, you know what I mean.
On top of the mindset that I can't be found
guilty for something that didn't new, so I was almost
certain that I was going to be found not guilty.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But remember the standard was much lower. They just needed
to get the jury to believe that these guys must
have been involved in some way and the events that
led to robbery and the resulting death, whether that was planning,
actually robbing and shooting mister King, or even merely just
being a lookout. When there appeared to be doubts about
Corporal's guilt.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think there was at least a jury question or
note that had been passed, and they gave the prosecution
a little bit of nervousness about getting a conviction on Corporal.
So for whatever reason or for those reasons, they would
strike a deal with Corporal before the verdict would come
down on shackle Ford.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And Wallace, so corporal was not included in the verdict
that led to life imprisonment for both Raheem Shackelford and
Tyree Wallace.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
My mindset was that I couldn't be found guilty because
I didn't do it like I genuinely absolutely believe that right.
So of course that afforded hope, right, but then they
read the verdict and the verdict was guilty. It's hard
for me to put in words how that felt. It
was disbelief. It was not understanding. As soon as they
(24:52):
gave me the opportunity, I spoke out immediately at trial
and said, you're honor I did not commit this crime.
It wasn't viewed as someone wh didn't commit the crime
fighting for their life right, which is what it was.
It was viewed as this convicted murderer being disruptive. So
(25:25):
after I was sentenced to life, then I wasn't shipped upstate.
It was absolutely what you think prison is supposed to
be like. It was extremely violent, it was extremely sexually violent.
That was my first encounter with Central Pennsylvania CEOs and
how they don't like people from Philly, how they particularly
(25:46):
don't like black men and It's my first time ever
encountering this type of energy. Right, It's like this stain
for me, for people who don't know me, there was
a violent energy. Now, Fortunately the neighborhood that I come
from South Philadelphia had a strong presence in the institution.
I went right into that fold. But then I immediately
switched my mind to all right, I have to fight this,
(26:08):
and I got introduced to the law library and really
got focused on learning. But I saw at a really
quick face that this is language that is created by
this system. These are rules that are created by this system.
And then the people who want to keep you in prison,
they are the arbiter of whether you are successful or not.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
His initial appeals were denied, as was his first post
conviction motion or but it's known as a PCRA in
two thousand and two, which was based on an effective
Assistance of Council, while Tyree filed successive pcras. Matthew Corporal
swore an affid David for Raheem Shakle for his attorney
in two thousand and seven, saying that he alone committed
(26:48):
the robbery homicide which Tyree only heard about in two
thousand and nine, but in finally a new PCRA based
on that affid David. The state presented paperwork stating that
Corporal was mentally ill and requested a psychologist to demonstrate
what they had known at the time of trial.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Corporu was clinically insane at the time of fron the
major depression, bipolar schizophrenia, and projection issues, and it dates
back to when he was a child. The only reason
I know this is because I had access to his
records as a result of the competency here. So they
knew this about this man and still took a statement
(27:27):
from him.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Obviously, the PCRA was denied, but corproof should have never
been relied on in the first place. Then, in twenty thirteen,
the Pennsylvania Innists Project signed on to Tyree's case and
they unearthed much of the exculpatory evidence that you've heard today.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Their private investigator went out, combed the community, spoke to
Van Griffin. He wanted to come forward, Rashie Grant, same thing,
Ricky Wilson, same thing, on and on and on and
on and on. There is all of this evidence.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Le Van Griffin said that police threatened him with his
own charges if he didn't say exactly what they wanted
him to say. Rachid Grant and Ricky Wilson said the
same thing that John muldro had said. Tyree was not
at the October twenty six planning meeting at James Davis's house,
and another PCIRA was filed.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
There was a moment there around twenty nineteen where it
looked like witness interviews that with Muldrow and some other
witnesses they were going to maybe get some assistance from
the court. But Levne Griffin was supposed to show up.
He didn't show up. And that was right before I
got involved.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And even though the Pennsylvania and this Is Project routinely
reaches out to private council to help with cases, that's
not how David got involved. I mean, after all, he's
an intellectual property lawyer.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
So I started this movement here which was called main Up.
In just a quick nutshell, how that happened. When I
was seeing all of this gun violence on TV, it
was really the only people that was standing up to
it were the women in the community. So my thought
process was like, where are the men? So I said,
what can I do about it? In here? And I
knew that a lot of the young guys who were
(29:00):
here would be back in the outside. So I wanted
to create a movement of men understanding what it was
to be a man, what that meant for yourself, for
your family, and your community. And we created this movement
called Man Up. So every week we would have four
hundred and fifty men. We had to turn away hundreds
of people to get to the chapel every week, and
(29:22):
the only thing that we were there for was to
talk about being better men. Each week there would be
a different topic. So if this week's topic was about
community restoration, we would have five people, would act out
a skit, somebody to do a song outside, guests come
in and give speeches about community restoration. But then we
would lay out plans for how we impact our community,
(29:45):
which is how the Street Capin Initiative was born. Jobs
came from this. My father one c three nonprofit organization,
Man Up came as a result of this. We did
street cleanings, we had a man Up hubs and different
communities on the outside, so we did a lot of
positive things based off of it.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
The program was being so well received that there were
questions about replicating it at other prisons, so he had
some intellectual property questions.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
So Dave came to see May and up it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Was an amazing almost revival like programs, and they would
tackle topics like toxic masculinity or anchor management, or being
a better father, or fiscal responsibility. And eventually, through probably
some deat subliminal messaging from Tyree to me, you know,
he wanted me to play that council role. And I
(30:37):
sort of resisted it for quite a while because it
was not my lane. But I eventually, with the support
of my firm Blank Rom and then collaborating with Ker
Bradford Gray and Kier having been the chief public defender
in Montgomery County, having headed up the Defenders Association in Philadelphia,
(30:58):
we became co counsel for Tyree.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
David and kir Bradford Gray continued down the same path
as the Pennsylvania Innis's project, interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I mean, Brooks has told us Tyree's innocent. Shack of
Ford has told us Tyree's innocent. Muldrew knows Tyree had
nothing to do with it. Davis said as much.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
James Davis has since acknowledged it. I had no involvement
in it that wasn't at his home.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
There's nobody in this entire chorus that says Tyree actually
had anything to.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Do with it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
As we understand it, the chorus to whom David is
referring has unanimously named an alternate suspect who may or
may not have been one of the state's trial witnesses. Now,
we're certainly not in the business of making accusations that
might lead to another wrongful conviction, So we're going to
refer to the chorus of state witnesses and others who
proclaim Tyree's innocence.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Levan Griffin knows that Tyree Wallace, I mean that how
many more people. The sheriff, who sat in the courtroom,
who has a pretty healthy experience of watching people testify,
believes that Brian Brooks's recantation was actually the truth coming out.
So the sheriff supports Tyree Wallace. The sheriff came up
here and talked with us about it. He was shocked
(32:13):
when he was contacted and found out that Tyree Wallace
had been sitting in prison for years. He thought for
sure there had been a mistrial after Brian Brooks's recantation.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
So David and Kir Bradford Gray filed another PCRA in
which all of the witnesses at trial have either recanted
or been discredited, and with the court's typical reluctance to
admit wrongdoing and the goal of at least getting Tyree home,
David and Keir got the court to agree to resentencing.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Tyree's sentence was life without parole under second degree founy murder,
and on June tenth, twenty twenty four, we got his
life sentence vacated, having been sort of put into a
position where he would end up pleading to conspiracy to
commit murder three.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
So this unwillingness to truly be accountable for the ills
of the system, that is another part that has to
be confronted.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So the fight to clear Tyree's name is not over.
As far as his resentencing hearing on Monday, November fourth,
twenty twenty four, there were a number of possible outcomes,
the worst one being twenty to forty years with parole eligibility.
With optimism and anticipation, Tyree registered to vote, and we're
happy to announce that he was released on time served
(33:27):
and got a chance to vote for the very first
time the following day. We're so happy for Tyree and
his family, and again we hope for their continued success
as they continue to fight his case. In the meantime,
we're going to link a fundraiser for Tyree's re entry
in the episode description, as he's not only going to
need help to get by, but also to hit the
ground running with the work he's been doing inside. And
(33:50):
with that, we're going to go to closing arguments as
we originally recorded them before this tremendous news.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I'm optimistic that we're going to have justice for Tyree.
He's the kind of voice that we should want in
our community. I think anyone who meets him feels like
it's a bit of a privilege to have crossed his
path and hear what he has to say. So we're
going to bring him home. I'm confident about that. But
Tyree's fight won't end then. He still deserves to be
(34:20):
fully exonerated. He's going to want support not only for
himself personally to some degree, but Tyree is going to
sort of set things alight, I think in terms of
fighting for others, trying to change policy, and he's going
to want people who are listening and who are set
by his story or energized by it to join him,
(34:40):
because it's going to take a whole chorus of people
to make changes to the things that he faced so
that he and others don't continue to have this happen.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. Again, it is
not acceptable that my name still be attached to the
robbery and killing position Youngs who King. Once I am out,
I am going to fight to make sure that my
name is clear, that what happened to missus young Youngs
who Cling is made clear. I want to do some
things to honor his name and to respect his name
(35:12):
and perpetuity. I am an open book. There are no
questions that I do not want to ask or answered
in Again, thank you for this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for
Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our
production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as
my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff
Cliber The music in this production was supplied by three
time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
(35:50):
us across all social media platforms at Lava for Good
and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on
Instagram at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is the production
of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company
Number One.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of LoVa for Good.
On October twenty sixth, nineteen ninety seven, a group of
Philadelphia teenagers planned a robbery that took place the following
night at a local Delhi. After closing up, the deli owner,
mister John Sue Kang, was held up and fatally shot
in front of the store. After canvassing the neighborhood, police
(00:23):
were unable to find out who had pulled the trigger,
but finding those who were part of the conspiracy was
a much easier task. Those present at the October twenty
sixth meeting were willing to testify against three neighborhood kids,
one of whom was Tyree Wallace. Despite a wide age
gap between Tyree and his co defendants, as well as
(00:44):
multiple false testimonies exposed that trial, Tyree was sentenced to
life without parole. But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction
has always gave voice to innocent people in prison, and
now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us at
(01:05):
eight three three two O seven four six sixty six
and tell us how these stories make you feel and
what you've done to help the cause, even if it's
something as simple as telling a friend or sharing on
social media, and you might just hear yourself in a
future episode call us eight three three two oh seven
four six sixty six. Welcome back to ronfel Conviction, where
(01:36):
another Philadelphia case has come to our attention, in which
our guest, Tyree Wallace, was not tied to the October
nineteen ninety seven crime scene. But when you're prosecuted for
felony murder in the second degree, you don't have to be.
And we'll look get into what that means in a minute,
But first let me introduce Tyree, who's joining us from
a Pennsylvania correctional facility, a place he doesn't belong in.
(01:58):
He never belonged there. But Tyree, thank you for calling in.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You're welcome, thank you for doing and.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Here with us to help share this harrowing story. His attorney,
David Perry, thanks for having me so, Tyree, you grew
up in Philadelphia in the eighties and nineties.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Right, yes, I did. I was born at Children's Hospital.
My mother lived on Cleveland Street in South Philadelphia, but
she had an alcohol addiction, and as a result of that,
I bounced back and forth between she my father, sometimes
my grandmother. But South Philadelphia. It was pleasant enough, but
it was starting to go downhill a little bit based
off of drugs in the community, but at its core
(02:37):
was still good decent people. For the most part.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
What you had at that time is a war on drugs,
aggressive policing, fear in the community about recidivism, some headline
making situations that caused a bit of a pendulum swing
to an extremely aggressive police and district attorney approach to
(03:01):
crime in the city of Philadelphia in the late nineties,
where a lot of people would say that there was
more of an emphasis on clearing cases than there was
on finding justice.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And these are familiar touchdowns for the crack epidemic era
and it's aftermath all throughout this country, with most citizens
just barely surviving both the crime that emanated from this
scourge as well as a police force that acted with impunity,
and the communities pulled through on the strength of folks
like the victim in this case, mister John Sukang Rest
(03:33):
in peace.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
He was just the giant in our community. He ran
the Salt and Peperative Deli on Seventeenth in Ellsworth and
most of the other Korean American establishments in South Philly.
They normally only hired other people from the Korean American community,
with the John intentionally hired from the people who lived
(03:56):
in South Philly. The store had a familiar feel as
a result of that intentionality. But then you had a
bunch of people with jobs who would not otherwise have
them if not for mister John.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
But not everyone is a pillar of the community, like
the armed young man or men potentially even boys who
may or may not have conspired to rob mister John.
As he closed up shop one night in the Salt
and Pepper Deli.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
At that time of night, there is mister Kang working there,
of course, and there is Levanne Griffin, the clerk. Levan
Griffin talked of three individuals, perhaps including a woman, come
in moments or minutes before the murder. They leave as
they're closing up the shop as they would normally do.
(04:42):
Mister Kang is holding a bag of money. Levan Griffin
has already exited the store, heading towards home, and mister
Kang heads towards his car. Levan Griffin hears a loud bang,
turns around and sees mister Kang having fallen to the ground.
Levan Griffin takes off running. There was never really any
(05:06):
physical evidence. There's no DNA element to this case, and
Levan Griffin spoke with detectives soon after this. Griffin could
gives some statement about somebody shorter and more heavy set
or chunkier than Tyree and also darker skinned. Lavan said,
they told me the people who walked into the store
(05:26):
right before closing were involved in the shooting, and I
personally had no knowledge of this.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We're really not sure where they got that information, considering
that the loan witness had just told them that he'd
only seen one shooter. Perhaps they were trying to get
him to identify the people who had come into the
store since he had actually seen them and could then
serve as a reliable eyewitness regardless of if those folks
were involved or not. Now we're really not sure of
their motives other than the significant pressure on them to
(05:54):
close this case.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
It was the absolute talk of the neighborhood, and I
remember thinking clearly that they are going to absolutely bury
somebody for this, and that would be justified. I'm like,
who would do this to mister King?
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Right?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The Korean American community was in an uproar, and rightfully so,
about what happened to missus John Young's who came and
they were demanding results. The officer, Charles Boyle and others
and my cads decided that we're going to get a conviction.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So the police began canvassing the neighborhood and putting pressure
on a number of neighborhood kids. Raheem Shackelford, Matthew Corporu,
James Davis, the first two of whom ended up becoming
Tyree's co defendants.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So I was from a block that was called nineteenth
and eighty. All of these guys you just named were
all guys from seventeenth Street. Now, while there's not a
great distance, it was to rivaling communities that wouldn't have
anything to do with each other. All of the guys
again that you just named, were all fifteen year olds
and fourteen year olds. I was nineteen years old. We
(06:57):
weren't in the same social circles. We were from rivaling community.
These we just did not interact.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
But there was one source from Tyree's social circle that
helped the police link him with Raheem Shackelford and Matthew Corporal.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
An associate of mine at the time, Brian Brooks had
a girlfriend named Tracy Drayton. Tracy's nephew was Matthew Corporal.
On one occasion at Tracy Dreaton's house, I was introduced
into Matthew Corporrew we shook Haynes never saw him again
until I was on trial with him for a robbery.
Howm is that?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
And the narrative eventually became Tyree and Brian attended a
planning meeting with these fourteen year olds the day prior
October twenty six, But no one is exactly sure of
how this narrative came to be.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I'm not exactly sure if I'll ever really know the
order of events. I think there is a degree I
suppose of going to the usual suspects, and I think
one person pointed to another and it just sort of
became what a lot of these guys have said is
sort of any two will do. And when it got
to a point where they found that had any two
(08:01):
or in this case three, they could clear the case
and sell it to the jury. But they sort of
ricochet off of each other. They knew Brian Brooks was
a bad actor because he had about four other robberies.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Interestingly, while under investigation for those robberies, Brian Brooks was
arrested just hours before this robbery homicide for an unrelated charge,
allegedly with information to trade on So.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
At four point fifty pm he's in custody and they're
interviewing him about the list of crimes. The murder takes
place later that night. Now it's not like Brian says,
I'm aware that something's going to go down tonight, So
there's no foreshadowing by Brian Brooks. In December, when Brian
Brooks is questioned by the police, he says he knows
(08:48):
nothing about the murder. Brian Brooks's December and police statement
is never written down. It's only ever talked about. But
how do we know that it occurred? At least we
believe it occurred because Brian Brooks would be questioned in
a police statement which is written down in February of
nineteen ninety eight, which basically begins with the police saying, Brian,
(09:11):
you're here to talk to us on your own free will. Yes,
it's about the murder of John King. Well, we interviewed
you in December. You said you didn't know anything about it, right, Yes,
that was a lie, right, Yes, why are you coming
now to tell us what you know, Well, because there's
a rumor going around that me and my brother had
something to do with it, and I don't like that. However,
(09:33):
the police knew that couldn't possibly have been plausible because
they could have easily said, well, Brian, of course you
had nothing to do with it. You were in custody.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So even his alleged motive to come forward was incredible.
In fact, Brooks had a much more credible motive for
making this statement.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Brian Brooks was a court for a whole host of
arm robberies. Each arm robbery had assault and we shortages
of takes to him, and Brian was facing two hundred
to four hundred years and so Brian helped these officers
in multiple different cases that he just didn't have knowledge about.
He was just willing to say whatever needed to be
said to take two hundred to four hundred years down
(10:15):
to five years.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Brian Brooks would go into excruciating detail about the planning
of the murder. On the day before the murder that
Tyree and others came by James Davis's house. They're talking
all about this big plan for the following night, and
if this is to be believed, the day of the murder,
(10:37):
Brian is being questioned in custody, ostensibly about a variety
of crimes. He's not trying to work that down by saying, well,
I've got something for you. There's something going down tonight.
He doesn't do that. Fast forward. Now it's February, and
not only does he know everything, he knew it the
day before it happened.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Now, how is that? That's a good question now. By
this time, James Davis also made a statement about them
where he allegedly declined an invitation from Tyree Wallace and
Raheem Shackleford to participate, that Matthew Corporal and Raheem Shackleford
showed him a soft off shotgun shortly before the crime,
and that Shackleford told him that they got one hundred
dollars off mister King. In addition, Matthew Corporal admitted to
(11:17):
being a lookout and implicated Shackleford and Tyree, and then
the police went to Lvan Griffin with a photo array
featuring Tyree, Corporal and Shackleford.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And Lavan Griffin had his own issues and would later
say that he was basically harassed by the police, and
his testimony would later be a very weak and loose
attempt to identify assailants. It was some loose reference to
having a similar bust or a similar body because Levanne
(11:51):
Griffin didn't see the shooting.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
All of this together was enough to charge Tyree Wallace,
Matthew Corporal, and Raheem Shackleford with conspiracy to commit robbery
and second degree felony murder, and Tyree was arrested on
February twentieth, nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yes, I was at my father's house in the phone ring.
My father answered the phone upstairs. The ass was Tyrie there,
and he calls down and says, Tyree cook up the
phone and the front door gets kicked in.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I get arrested once.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I get there. I was being interviewed by Detective Charles Boyle,
and again I'm nineteen years old. Nervous is on him,
so I say to him, I said, listen, sir, you
have the one person I had nothing to do with
the grown. So he looked behind him and closed the door,
turned around, looked me right in my eyes and said,
you know what he said. I believe you said. I
(12:43):
don't give a fuck.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
You're listening to ron for conviction. You can listen to
this all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early
and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus
on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
In the commission of a felony, if anybody has killed
everybody involved in that conspiracy, it receives a life sentence.
So what people like Charles Boyle has been able to
do is to weaponize that law. So he wasn't guessing
this was a blueprint that he was so confident that
(13:37):
he was just willing to reveal it to me. He said,
let me tell you what the rest of your life
is going to look like. You're gonna spend the next
two years at CFCF then you're gonna get convicted of
second degree murder. They never had to accuse me of
killing mister King. They never had to accuse anyone of
killing mister King. All they had to do was convince
a jury that these three young black men who didn't
(14:00):
know each other, we're in a conspiracy to roy mister King,
and as a result of that, he died and everybody
gets a life sentence.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Rahim Shaka Ford says that when he goes into a
courtroom for the first time to see Tyree, he says
who's that guy?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And as Tyree said earlier, he had only met Matthew
Karprou once in passing. Nevertheless, just like detective Boil predicted,
Tyree awaited trial for nearly two years and he was
tried along with his co defendants in October nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
So I did have a quarter pointed attorney, Daniel Green,
and in retrospect, having some standing of how the system
works when you think about the fact that the courts
are in business and the de's are in business of
punishing crime, of getting convictions. So when they are appointing
you a coin appointed attorney, your immediate thought and this
(14:51):
person is here to save the day, and that's not
necessarily the case. This person is here to meet the
standard of right he or she he had representation, and
a lot of times they are there to help facilitate
this process. And nothing stood out more to me than
during the trial when my father said he came into
(15:11):
a courtroom and Daniel Green and Evan Luiz, who was
the discrease fired eighty A in my case, were just
like just chumming it up. So my father went in,
put the money together to get a paid attorney, put
in a motion to have this attorney come on. This
was two days before trial, and the judge said, well, listen,
I can't stop you from bringing in a paid attorney,
(15:33):
but I am not postponing this trialdy. So the attorney
has two days to learn his keys.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
So they stuck with Daniel Green, and it appears that
every state's witness was coerced and or incentivized.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The narrative in the theory of the crime is that
shackle Ford and Tyree Wallace accost Kang, shoot him take
his money, with corporal present as a lookout, and Griffin
hears it. He turns around quickly enough to see mister
Kang slump onto the ground, and he takes off running scared.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Remember, the state's narrative was that the assailants had entered
the store before the crime. Now le Van Griffin was
coerced into making IDs with the threat of his own charges.
In addition, he had seen only one shooter, who he
described as short, chubby, and dark skinned. Tyree is six ' too,
slim and light skinned. Yet Griffin still id Shackelford and Tyree,
(16:34):
so Tyree's lawyer was able to impeach Griffin on cross He.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Read the description though, and as you pointed out, I
was the polar opposite not only height but weight, skin color.
Danny Green asked Levan Griffin directly, are you saying that
my client is the person that came into the store.
His response is, no, he fit the description. So my
lawyer said, listen, you're honor, please tell him to stop
(16:59):
singing it and just answer my question. So my lawyer
asked him again, are you saying that he's the person
who came into the store. He's saying, no, he fit
the description. So he said, you're honor, please make him
stop saying that. So the court stipulates that this was
not an identification, that it was something lesser.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Dan, You had Matthew Corporu, who claimed to be a lookout,
but his statement presented a familiar constitutional issue. Corporal has
his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination, and conversely, his
co defendants have the right to confront their accuser. So
to satisfy everyone's rights, they had a redacted version of
Corporal's statement read into the record.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
They put Charles Boyle on the stain who read his
statement into evidence, where he would say, me and two
guys planned to do this robbery. So it's three people
in proud He's saying, me and two guys. The fact
that this detective is reading this into the evidence gives
it validity.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And even though Tyree and Shackle for his names were
carefully left out, Levang had made his identification. However, impeachd
may have been and remember to convict them of conspiracy
and second degree fellowing murder. They didn't have to prove
who killed mister King.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
I didn't realize that the DA wasn't even trying to
prove a legitimate connection between me and the scene. She
was only trying to convince these twelve people that these
three young black men were in a conspiracy to rob
mister King. Now that was not true, obviously, but that's
a much lower standard.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So they heard testimony about the October twenty sixth planning meeting,
starting with James Davis and his mother Sonya Godfrey.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
His mother, I think lied on the stand about time
of day and what she said. When she turns out
she was at work and wasn't even home, and so
she was caught in her lie. It sort of smelled
like an effort to shield James Davis from being sucked
into this whole thing, and it sounds like it worked.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
When she was court in Alie, she said that they
made her say it. She didn't want to see it. Then,
when her son undercrossed examination, said that the police harassed him,
that they brought him and his mother to the station
three or four.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Times for whatever reasons. James Davis never became engulfed in
the police's efforts back then, but there's seemingly a pretty
consistent chorus of people who are incredulous of what James
Davis had to say.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
James Davis said that at the planning meeting, Shackelford and
Tyree asked him to participate, but he declined, and then
Shackelford and Corporu showed him a shot off shotgun prior
to the crime and after the fact told him that
they only got one hundred dollars from mister King. And
then Brian Brooks also claimed to have witnessed the meeting
and that after the crime, Tyree told him that Shackelford
(19:46):
was the shooter.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Brian tells this story and then after he's finished giving
his testimony, he goes back to the holding area of
the courtroom and he turns to Sheriff John Hamilton and
he says to the sh sheriff, Hey, Sheriff, what's the
penalty for perjury? And the sheriff says a three to
five years.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Why.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
It's like, well, I just lied up there. They made
me say that. So the sheriff goes and reveals to
the judge what this witness has just said to him
within minutes of testifying. In this case, there would be
some delay there. The sheriff told me that. As that
was all unfolding, some of the other police around actually
(20:27):
said to the sheriff like, what are you an inmate lover?
Speaker 1 (20:30):
An inmate lover?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
It was clearly very revealing about the culture in which
a lot of these guys operated, and Sheriff Hamilton was like, no,
I know right from wrong. I have to tell the court.
So they brought the sheriff on the stand. They brought
Brian Brooks back on the stand, and that's when the
Assistant DA basically said to Brian Brooks, hold on a minute,
what happens to people who tell on other people in prison?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
What are they?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
They're snitches? So you're just really worried about being a snitch, right,
Your testimony was accurate.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Realized that the DA did a lot of things in
that trial that she wasn't supposed to do as a prosecutor.
But now I understand the purpose of it. The way
she was able to explain Brian Brooks's recantation was just
not true. But she did these things over and over again.
She had a pattern in practice. So I need people
(21:21):
to understand DH they have immunity for doing anything. They
have to be seriously corrupt in order to get fired,
and she wound up being fired.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
But that was many years after it would have done
Tyree any good. Meanwhile, the attorneys for all three were
able to expose inconsistencies and falsehoods from Levon Griffin, James Davis,
and Sonia Godfrey, followed by Brian Brooks's in court recantation,
and then Tyree's alibi. Witnesses told the jury where he
was that night.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
He was at Damon Milligan's house with Damon Milligan's mother
and girlfriend. But this house that they used to hang
out with was a bit of a party, not exactly
the most credible witness to put in front of a jury.
They were easily discredited by the DA's office. So the
alibi just sort of frittered away.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
It also didn't clear him from the October twenty sixth meeting.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
There was another witness who would never be called Jonathan Muldrew.
Mouldrew had gone down and spoken to either the DA
or Summon in the office and he actually expected to
be somehow called as a witness by the prosecution. Muldrow
was at James Davis home where this supposed the planning
(22:37):
session took place, and Muldrow was like, no, I'll tell
you the truth, and who was there and who wasn't there.
Muldrow professes Tyree's innocence and complete uninvolvement. Tyree's lawyer tried
to get Muldrow to come testify, and Muldrow was in
the hospital, and there's an exchange where the judge says, look,
(22:59):
i'll help you help, I'll serve a subpoena, will get
him to the court if you need him testify, and
they just gave.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Up, just gave up on the independent witness who could
have destroyed the planning meeting evidence, so that left only
his alibi witnesses against cor Pru's redacted statement. The Van
Griffins lesser than id supported by the parade of discredited
state's witnesses.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
To me and the people who supported me, it seemed
like an absolute no brainer. When people are being court
and lies, when people were saying they didn't want to say,
the DA made me saying when people are recanting like
at Troud, this stuff is happening, you know what I mean.
On top of the mindset that I can't be found
guilty for something that didn't new, so I was almost
certain that I was going to be found not guilty.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But remember the standard was much lower. They just needed
to get the jury to believe that these guys must
have been involved in some way and the events that
led to robbery and the resulting death, whether that was planning,
actually robbing and shooting mister King, or even merely just
being a lookout. When there appeared to be doubts about
Corporal's guilt.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I think there was at least a jury question or
note that had been passed, and they gave the prosecution
a little bit of nervousness about getting a conviction on Corporal.
So for whatever reason or for those reasons, they would
strike a deal with Corporal before the verdict would come
down on shackle Ford.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And Wallace, so corporal was not included in the verdict
that led to life imprisonment for both Raheem Shackelford and
Tyree Wallace.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
My mindset was that I couldn't be found guilty because
I didn't do it like I genuinely absolutely believe that right.
So of course that afforded hope, right, but then they
read the verdict and the verdict was guilty. It's hard
for me to put in words how that felt. It
was disbelief. It was not understanding. As soon as they
(24:52):
gave me the opportunity, I spoke out immediately at trial
and said, you're honor I did not commit this crime.
It wasn't viewed as someone wh didn't commit the crime
fighting for their life right, which is what it was.
It was viewed as this convicted murderer being disruptive. So
(25:25):
after I was sentenced to life, then I wasn't shipped upstate.
It was absolutely what you think prison is supposed to
be like. It was extremely violent, it was extremely sexually violent.
That was my first encounter with Central Pennsylvania CEOs and
how they don't like people from Philly, how they particularly
(25:46):
don't like black men and It's my first time ever
encountering this type of energy. Right, It's like this stain
for me, for people who don't know me, there was
a violent energy. Now, Fortunately the neighborhood that I come
from South Philadelphia had a strong presence in the institution.
I went right into that fold. But then I immediately
switched my mind to all right, I have to fight this,
(26:08):
and I got introduced to the law library and really
got focused on learning. But I saw at a really
quick face that this is language that is created by
this system. These are rules that are created by this system.
And then the people who want to keep you in prison,
they are the arbiter of whether you are successful or not.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
His initial appeals were denied, as was his first post
conviction motion or but it's known as a PCRA in
two thousand and two, which was based on an effective
Assistance of Council, while Tyree filed successive pcras. Matthew Corporal
swore an affid David for Raheem Shakle for his attorney
in two thousand and seven, saying that he alone committed
(26:48):
the robbery homicide which Tyree only heard about in two
thousand and nine, but in finally a new PCRA based
on that affid David. The state presented paperwork stating that
Corporal was mentally ill and requested a psychologist to demonstrate
what they had known at the time of trial.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Corporu was clinically insane at the time of fron the
major depression, bipolar schizophrenia, and projection issues, and it dates
back to when he was a child. The only reason
I know this is because I had access to his
records as a result of the competency here. So they
knew this about this man and still took a statement
(27:27):
from him.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Obviously, the PCRA was denied, but corproof should have never
been relied on in the first place. Then, in twenty thirteen,
the Pennsylvania Innists Project signed on to Tyree's case and
they unearthed much of the exculpatory evidence that you've heard today.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Their private investigator went out, combed the community, spoke to
Van Griffin. He wanted to come forward, Rashie Grant, same thing,
Ricky Wilson, same thing, on and on and on and
on and on. There is all of this evidence.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Le Van Griffin said that police threatened him with his
own charges if he didn't say exactly what they wanted
him to say. Rachid Grant and Ricky Wilson said the
same thing that John muldro had said. Tyree was not
at the October twenty six planning meeting at James Davis's house,
and another PCIRA was filed.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
There was a moment there around twenty nineteen where it
looked like witness interviews that with Muldrow and some other
witnesses they were going to maybe get some assistance from
the court. But Levne Griffin was supposed to show up.
He didn't show up. And that was right before I
got involved.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And even though the Pennsylvania and this Is Project routinely
reaches out to private council to help with cases, that's
not how David got involved. I mean, after all, he's
an intellectual property lawyer.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
So I started this movement here which was called main Up.
In just a quick nutshell, how that happened. When I
was seeing all of this gun violence on TV, it
was really the only people that was standing up to
it were the women in the community. So my thought
process was like, where are the men? So I said,
what can I do about it? In here? And I
knew that a lot of the young guys who were
(29:00):
here would be back in the outside. So I wanted
to create a movement of men understanding what it was
to be a man, what that meant for yourself, for
your family, and your community. And we created this movement
called Man Up. So every week we would have four
hundred and fifty men. We had to turn away hundreds
of people to get to the chapel every week, and
(29:22):
the only thing that we were there for was to
talk about being better men. Each week there would be
a different topic. So if this week's topic was about
community restoration, we would have five people, would act out
a skit, somebody to do a song outside, guests come
in and give speeches about community restoration. But then we
would lay out plans for how we impact our community,
(29:45):
which is how the Street Capin Initiative was born. Jobs
came from this. My father one c three nonprofit organization,
Man Up came as a result of this. We did
street cleanings, we had a man Up hubs and different
communities on the outside, so we did a lot of
positive things based off of it.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
The program was being so well received that there were
questions about replicating it at other prisons, so he had
some intellectual property questions.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
So Dave came to see May and up it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Was an amazing almost revival like programs, and they would
tackle topics like toxic masculinity or anchor management, or being
a better father, or fiscal responsibility. And eventually, through probably
some deat subliminal messaging from Tyree to me, you know,
he wanted me to play that council role. And I
(30:37):
sort of resisted it for quite a while because it
was not my lane. But I eventually, with the support
of my firm Blank Rom and then collaborating with Ker
Bradford Gray and Kier having been the chief public defender
in Montgomery County, having headed up the Defenders Association in Philadelphia,
(30:58):
we became co counsel for Tyree.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
David and kir Bradford Gray continued down the same path
as the Pennsylvania Innis's project, interviewing and reinterviewing witnesses.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I mean, Brooks has told us Tyree's innocent. Shack of
Ford has told us Tyree's innocent. Muldrew knows Tyree had
nothing to do with it. Davis said as much.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
James Davis has since acknowledged it. I had no involvement
in it that wasn't at his home.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
There's nobody in this entire chorus that says Tyree actually
had anything to.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Do with it.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
As we understand it, the chorus to whom David is
referring has unanimously named an alternate suspect who may or
may not have been one of the state's trial witnesses. Now,
we're certainly not in the business of making accusations that
might lead to another wrongful conviction, So we're going to
refer to the chorus of state witnesses and others who
proclaim Tyree's innocence.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Levan Griffin knows that Tyree Wallace, I mean that how
many more people. The sheriff, who sat in the courtroom,
who has a pretty healthy experience of watching people testify,
believes that Brian Brooks's recantation was actually the truth coming out.
So the sheriff supports Tyree Wallace. The sheriff came up
here and talked with us about it. He was shocked
(32:13):
when he was contacted and found out that Tyree Wallace
had been sitting in prison for years. He thought for
sure there had been a mistrial after Brian Brooks's recantation.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
So David and Kir Bradford Gray filed another PCRA in
which all of the witnesses at trial have either recanted
or been discredited, and with the court's typical reluctance to
admit wrongdoing and the goal of at least getting Tyree home,
David and Keir got the court to agree to resentencing.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Tyree's sentence was life without parole under second degree founy murder,
and on June tenth, twenty twenty four, we got his
life sentence vacated, having been sort of put into a
position where he would end up pleading to conspiracy to
commit murder three.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
So this unwillingness to truly be accountable for the ills
of the system, that is another part that has to
be confronted.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
So the fight to clear Tyree's name is not over.
As far as his resentencing hearing on Monday, November fourth,
twenty twenty four, there were a number of possible outcomes,
the worst one being twenty to forty years with parole eligibility.
With optimism and anticipation, Tyree registered to vote, and we're
happy to announce that he was released on time served
(33:27):
and got a chance to vote for the very first
time the following day. We're so happy for Tyree and
his family, and again we hope for their continued success
as they continue to fight his case. In the meantime,
we're going to link a fundraiser for Tyree's re entry
in the episode description, as he's not only going to
need help to get by, but also to hit the
ground running with the work he's been doing inside. And
(33:50):
with that, we're going to go to closing arguments as
we originally recorded them before this tremendous news.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
I'm optimistic that we're going to have justice for Tyree.
He's the kind of voice that we should want in
our community. I think anyone who meets him feels like
it's a bit of a privilege to have crossed his
path and hear what he has to say. So we're
going to bring him home. I'm confident about that. But
Tyree's fight won't end then. He still deserves to be
(34:20):
fully exonerated. He's going to want support not only for
himself personally to some degree, but Tyree is going to
sort of set things alight, I think in terms of
fighting for others, trying to change policy, and he's going
to want people who are listening and who are set
by his story or energized by it to join him,
(34:40):
because it's going to take a whole chorus of people
to make changes to the things that he faced so
that he and others don't continue to have this happen.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. Again, it is
not acceptable that my name still be attached to the
robbery and killing position Youngs who King. Once I am out,
I am going to fight to make sure that my
name is clear, that what happened to missus young Youngs
who Cling is made clear. I want to do some
things to honor his name and to respect his name
(35:12):
and perpetuity. I am an open book. There are no
questions that I do not want to ask or answered
in Again, thank you for this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen
to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one
week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for
Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our
production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as
my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff
Cliber The music in this production was supplied by three
time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
(35:50):
us across all social media platforms at Lava for Good
and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on
Instagram at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is the production
of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company
Number One.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported
in this show are accurate.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in
this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect
those of LoVa for Good.
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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