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Convicted of murder, set free by a Post-it note

Perman Pitman spent four years behind bars for murder before a Post-it note changed everything. Pitman, charged with gunning down a friend in North Camden in 2005, was released from prison in 2010 after prosecutors discovered a sticky note in the case file that said a key witness was paid to identify Pitman as the killer. Since then Pitman has been free, but with no formal exoneration, he has struggled to escape the past.

Perman Pitman outside the Camden County Courthouse in 2010.
Perman Pitman outside the Camden County Courthouse in 2010.Read moreJIMMY VIOLA / Staff File Photo

Perman Pitman spent four years behind bars for murder before a Post-it note changed everything.

Pitman, charged with gunning down a friend in North Camden in 2005, was released from prison in 2010 after prosecutors discovered a sticky note in the case file that said a key witness was paid to identify Pitman as the killer. Since then Pitman has been free, but with no formal exoneration, he has struggled to escape the past.

Last month, Pitman's attorney, Cherry Hill-based Paul Melletz, reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit Pitman filed against city, county, and state officials. Melletz would not disclose the exact figure but said he and Pitman were "very satisfied" with the amount.

Pitman, 44, is "trying to get his life together," Melletz said. "This money, when he gets it, will help him do that."

Pitman was known to Camden police as a member of the Sons of Malcolm X street gang. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the slaying of Stephon Cook, a fellow gang member. After his release from the Camden County Jail in 2005, Pitman moved out of Camden and opened an auto-detailing shop in Cherry Hill.

The following year, Pitman was standing on a North Camden porch with Robert Mays, 51, another former member of the Sons of Malcolm X, when two men fired at least seven shots from a passing car. Mays was killed and Pitman fled, according to court records.

A witness later told investigators he saw Pitman and another man pull guns and fire at Mays. But the witness recanted, according to records, and another person told authorities the witness had been paid by others to name Pitman as the triggerman.

When police arrested Pitman, he admitted he had been at the scene of Mays' death, but denied killing him and said the gunmen shot at him as well. The case languished for two years while Pitman was held in custody.

"I requested a trial repeatedly, but they kept me out of the courtroom," Pitman told the Inquirer in 2010. "I was stuck. I couldn't get no help. Nobody would listen and nobody cared."

Pitman accepted a plea agreement to serve five years when he learned he would likely be released sooner than if he waited for a trial, and he filed a motion for post-conviction relief alleging that prosecutors ignored evidence in his case.

It was then that Teresa Garvey, an assistant prosecutor for Camden County, came across the Post-it note written by Harry Collins, a prosecutor who had been with the office for more than 15 years. The note said the witness had been paid to finger Pitman as the shooter, according to court documents. At the end, it read, "Please destroy this note."

Collins resigned in 2010, and the Prosecutor's Office vacated Pitman's indictment.

"He was prosecuted with blindness because of his own criminal history," Pitman's lawyer, Andrew Smith, said at the time.

Since then, Pitman has married and had a child, said Melletz, his current attorney. He lives in a suburb of Camden and has a factory job, but he has struggled to maintain stable employment because of his recent record.

"For some people, there's always doubt in their minds," Melletz said. "But I think this settlement shows that the state and its representatives know there was a great wrong done. He can't get those years back, but I think he feels vindicated."

asteele@phillynews.com

856-779-3876 @AESteele