Drew Whitley

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:35 pm

Man serving life term exonerated by DNA

The Associated Press
May 1, 2006

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man serving a life sentence for a 1988 killing
was freed Monday after charges were withdrawn because DNA evidence
from the killer's clothing did not match him.

Drew Whitley, 50, had been jailed since he was arrested soon after
the shooting death of Noreen Malloy, 22, outside the restaurant she
managed.

"I want to thank God for keeping me strong through this nightmare,"
Whitley said before walking out of court.

DNA test results released last week showed that DNA from hairs on the
killer's hat did not match Whitley, and the office of Allegheny
County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. dropped the charges
Monday.

The hat, a bloodstained coat and shoes were found outside the
restaurant and a stocking mask was found nearby.

A witness identified Whitley based on the shape of his face and his
walk. At his 1989 trial, a crime lab technician said 41 hairs found
in the mask resembled Whitley's hair. DNA testing was not available
at the time.

Blood on the shoes matched Whitley's blood type, but the shoes were
destroyed in a 1996 flood that wiped out much of the county police
evidence room.

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:35 pm

Innocent blood

Beaver County Times, Editorial
May 3, 2006

In a sense, Drew Whitley was lucky. The 50-year-old Pittsburgh man was
wrongly convicted of second-degree murder in 1989, which meant he was
never going to be executed.

Whitley, who was serving a life sentence for a 1988 murder in West
Mifflin, was freed on Monday after charges were withdrawn because his DNA
didn't match evidence from clothing worn by the killer. It's another
example of DNA evidence proving eyewitness testimony to be wrong.

Whitley's case is also another reason to suspend the death penalty
nationwide until there has been a thorough investigation of every convict
who is now on death row.

Each exoneration - and there have been far too many of them to ignore -
makes it clear that innocent people have been jailed for murders and rapes
they didn't commit.

Is our societal need for revenge so strong that we aren't bothered by the
possibility that innocent blood has been and will be shed?

Marion · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:35 pm

Braddock man exonerated in killing by DNA test sues

By David Conti
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Thursday, March 29, 2007

The DNA testing that cleared a Braddock man of a 1988 slaying does not pay the bills or provide any compensation for the more than 16 years he spent behind bars.
Drew Whitley hopes a federal lawsuit will take care of that.

Whitley, 51, sued Allegheny County, six former county homicide detectives and an attorney on Wednesday, claiming malicious prosecution and violation of his civil rights because he was wrongly sent to prison for fatally shooting Noreen Malloy outside a McDonald's restaurant in Duquesne.

"It would be nice to have Drew Whitley free with more than just the shirt on his back, which was all he got," said his attorney, Lawrence H. Fisher.

But winning a malicious prosecution case is an "uphill battle," said Adele Bernhard, a professor at Pace University Law School in New York who studies how people exonerated by DNA are compensated.

"I think if people like this keep bringing the lawsuits, they will get better settlements," she said. "And it begins to have an impact on police procedures."

Pennsylvania is among 29 states with no laws providing cash to exonerated convicts. A bill is pending in the state Senate.

Lawsuits have worked for some of the estimated 200 people freed from the nation's prisons based on DNA testing. A California man cleared of raping a 13-year-old girl after nine years in jail settled his lawsuit in January for $1 million. Chicago paid $9 million to a man who spent 11 years in prison for an assault he did not commit.

One state, New Hampshire, caps payouts to such ex-convicts at $20,000.

A jury in 1989 convicted Whitley of second-degree murder based partly on testimony from a death-row inmate who claimed Whitley confessed, and a crime lab technician's opinion that hairs found in a stocking mask worn by the killer were similar to Whitley's.

When DNA testing became available in the mid-1990s, hairs kept as evidence in the case were tested; the results showed they were not Whitley's. In May, a judge ordered a new trial -- and then ordered Whitley freed when prosecutors dropped the case.

Whitley's lawsuit claims the county and its detectives conducted a "malicious prosecution" and that investigators were racist, ignored evidence and pressured witnesses to lie.

Two of the former detectives -- Thomas Fitzgerald, now the U.S. Marshal for Western Pennsylvania, and Lee Torbin, now an investigator for the state Gaming Control Board -- declined to comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit also names former detectives Robert Lazarro, Herb Foote, John Markle and Robert Payne.

The lawsuit also names Downtown attorney Sanford Middleman, whom Fisher said represented Whitley during his appeals. The lawsuit claims Middleman shirked his responsibilities. Middleman could not be reached for comment.

Drew Whitley

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