Editorial: Justice must rule

If prosecutors can't make their case, they should stop blocking the release of an inmate who has had two murder convictions voided because of technicalities.

To keep Zachary Wilson imprisoned any longer under these circumstances would hardly qualify as what is called justice in America.

Wilson was convicted of murder in two fatal shootings in the 1980s. He was given a life term in the case of a 1981 slaying in a North Philadelphia bar, and sentenced to death for a 1982 killing during a dice game.

Both verdicts and the death sentence were overturned in separate federal appeals, with one reversal occurring in 2005 and the second just two months ago. That means Wilson, 54, isn't guilty in either slaying, technically. Neither has he been vindicated. But he has spent 26 years in prison.

Wilson's successful appeals did not center on his guilt or innocence, but rather on whether he was given fair trials. In one case, it was determined that blacks were improperly excluded from the jury. Wilson is African American. In the other case, prosecutors were found to have withheld key evidence that could have discredited eyewitness testimony.

Ordinarily, prosecutors might simply move to retry a murder defendant and again convince a jury to return a guilty verdict. But these are not typical cases.

After the first appeals ruling in 2005, the court gave prosecutors 180 days to decide whether to retry Wilson for the 1982 killing of David Swift. But no new charges were filed until last month - five years past the deadline.

With the latest successful appeal by Wilson, prosecutors have four months left in a separate 180-day deadline to recharge him for the 1981 barroom slaying of Jamie Lamb. But that seems unlikely. That case was described by a three-judge appeals panel as weak, with tainted witnesses, and would likely yield an acquittal. There was no physical evidence implicating Wilson.

However, since Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams had Wilson rearrested for the 1982 slaying last month, Wilson remains behind bars, and could be there a long time awaiting a new trial. Pennsylvania murder defendants can't be released on bail.

"It doesn't seem fair to the citizens of Philadelphia to walk away from it," said Thomas W. Dolgenos of the District Attorney's Office.

OK, don't walk away. But prosecutors should move quickly if they want another trial. It's just as unfair to keep Wilson locked up absent a verdict.