New trial for lifer after DNA raises questions

The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office announced Friday that it had agreed to a new trial for Anthony Wright, now serving life in prison for the 1991 rape and murder of a 77-year-old Nicetown woman.

"We are committed in the District Attorney's Office to giving everyone a fair trial," said Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson, a veteran homicide prosecutor who in April was named head of the office's new Conviction Review Unit.

Gilson said new DNA analysis techniques, which show that Wright's DNA was not on the body of Louise Talley, were "not available when we tried the case in 1993. We want a new trial where this will be considered with all the other evidence that we believe still proves this defendant murdered Louise Talley."

The latest DNA tests on fluids found in Talley's body has been linked to a career criminal and crack addict named Ronnie Byrd, who died early last year in South Carolina.

Gilson, however, said the new DNA evidence only proves that Wright did not rape Talley and did not act alone: "It doesn't exclude him as the murderer."

Nina Morrison, senior staff attorney at the Innocence Project at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York City, called the news "wonderful. We've been working for this for nine years."

"All we can say at this point is that we're pleased the D.A.'s Office has recognized that the new DNA evidence requires at the very least a new trial for Tony."

Morrison said that after the new trial is officially granted - expected Monday at a hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge D. Webster Keogh - prosecutors might review the evidence and agree with them that Wright is innocent.

That does not seem likely, at least for the present.

Gilson said his office "is ready to try this tomorrow and we're formally committed to trying this case on the position that Anthony Wright killed 77-year-old Louise Talley."

"The fact remains that there were no less than eight witnesses who all separately identified the defendant as the person who was responsible for killing Louise Talley," Gilson said.

In addition to Wright's signed confession, Gilson said Wright's clothing he was identified as wearing on the night of the murder, stained with Louise Talley's blood, was found hidden under his bed.

Wright's lawyers have argued that his DNA was not found on the clothing - only the victim's. Gilson, however, said the clothing - including size 36 men's jeans - was "not what you would expect a 77-year-old woman to be wearing."

Wright, 43, confessed to homicide detectives in Talley's killing but then recanted; he testified at trial and has since insisted that he did not rape or murder her and that detectives coerced him into confessing.