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Fred Thomas
This comprehensive article
features significant legal documents available for review and
download.
The following documents
are available from the 20/20 site Police Officer's Description
of the Killing Postmortem Report on William Moyer Mitchell Fielding's
Affidavit Maria Fielding's Police Statement Charles 'Countrie'
Rowe Recants Joe Thorton/William 'Greenie' Green Affidavit James
Wilkerson's Affidavit Thomas' Federal Habeas Corpus Petition
The Prosecutor's Response - Part One and Two
This death penalty
case is becoming a source of American shame, and a growing number
of people around the world are becoming increasingly alarmed
by the evidence of police corruption tainting the cause of justice.
March 8, 2002
Fred Thomas, Waits for Death:
He May Die Before the State Can Kill Him, or His Lawyers Can
Clear Him
By Eddie Pinder
Feb. 20 - Fred Thomas is a
dead man dying.
Every day, Thomas lives with
this thought in a 7-by-9 prison cell on death row at the State
Correctional Institution in Graterford, Pa. The state sent him
there for a murder he says he didn't commit - the killing of
a Philadelphia Federal Express driver four days before Christmas
in 1993.
But Thomas may never get a
chance at exoneration.
He is deathly ill. His doctors
say he has end-stage liver disease, out-of-control diabetes and
hepatitis C. His pancreas barely functions and he has been diagnosed
with encephalopathy because his liver can no longer process toxins.
He survives on a shot of insulin and four pills a day.
Doctors have told Thomas that
he might have a couple of years, but they can't make any promises
- he stopped breathing recently, and had to be revived with a
defibrillator.
There are few, if any, comforts
for this dying 56-year-old - no TV, radio, chair or books - just
a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a spoon and a knee-level bed with
a thin twin-sized mattress and some blankets.
"Ain't nothing in this
room but cold; I stay in this bed all day long," he said
in his slurred, slow speech recently.
Death in the Badlands
Protestations of innocence
are a common refrain in prison, but his lawyers are convinced
Thomas is telling the truth. They believe a dirty cop, who himself
was indicted for corruption in other cases the day Thomas was
sentenced, is largely responsible for Thomas' fate.
Thomas' lawyers have cried,
agonized, stayed up late and argued vigorously for a new trial.
Nonetheless, it may ultimately be a power higher than the courts
that determines if Thomas lives.
"I know I'm getting ready
to leave here but I'm not worried because the man upstairs is
waiting," he said.
Thomas was convicted in 1995
of killing Willam Moyer, who was found beside his parked delivery
truck, shot in the face in a rough section of North Philadelphia,
near the corner of Ninth and Clearfield Streets.
The area is known as "the
Badlands." It's a community rife with drugs, junkies, guns
and murder. Eight years after the killing, blank-eyed people
still wander the streets in mid-afternoon, strolling aimlessly
among the litter - old car parts, spare tires, fallen leaves,
garbage and newspapers.
No packages were missing or
stolen from Moyer's truck. Only one package was opened. The only
remaining contents of that package were foreign newspapers.
The parcel's sender was listed
as Colecciones Biblicas International Incorporated. It was mailed
from Santurce, Puerto Rico, to Roberto Perez at 3052 N. Ninth
St. A person who answered the door recently said that no Roberto
Perez lives there, or has ever lived there in their memory.
Thomas' legal team says the
contents of the package were valued and insured at $100 - a high
price for old newspapers, which in themselves are an odd thing
to be express-delivered to this economically depressed community.
Police began their investigation
with very few clues. Prosecutors say a highway patrol officer,
Chris Werner, who was familiar with the area, contacted two men
who were known to hang around that intersection.
William "Greenie"
Green and Charles "Countrie" Rowe, who said they were
Thomas' friends, admitted they were near the corner drinking
liquor at 9 a.m., huddling by a fire in a barrel. They told police,
and later testified, that they saw Fred Thomas at the intersection
before they heard a "loud bang." They said on the witness
stand that they never saw Fred Thomas shoot Moyer. They said
they heard a bang, and saw him run towards an alley, stuffing
something in his coat.
Thomas told ABCNEWS he was
in the neighborhood to visit relatives that morning, and at one
point was just steps away from the where Moyer's body was discovered.
He was there to get some booze - Nightrain, Thunderbird and a
40-ounce bottle of Old English malt liquor - from an illegal
liquor store, a "speakeasy," he called it. He got his
supplies and walked toward an alley.
A Drunk, a Convict a Suspect
Prosecutor Roger King had few
leads besides Countrie and Greenie. There was no gun, no motive,
no delivery packages or any physical evidence to link Fred Thomas
to the murder.
But Thomas was the local drunk,
known as "Crazy Fred." A car accident in his youth,
his lawyers say, left him mentally impaired, with little chance
of ever leaving the Badlands. He had a criminal history going
back to his youth, including convictions for assault and manslaughter.
After two trials, he was found
guilty of first-degree murder for Moyer's killing.
He remembers his shock when
the verdict was read.
"I didn't believe it was
for real," he said. "I got a little dizzy. When they
came back with the death penalty, I really didn't believe it."
He was sentenced to death on
Feb. 28, 1995. That same day, in another courtroom, Philadelphia
Highway Patrol Officer James Ryan was one of five cops indicted
for corruption.
Ryan was charged with a range
of crimes, including conspiracy, interference with interstate
commerce by robbery, theft, violation of civil rights, obstruction
of justice and aiding and abetting.
The Federal Defenders
The confluence of events would
be meaningless, except Thomas' legal team believes this officer
was largely responsible for Thomas' conviction for the murder
of William Moyer.
One of Thomas' lawyers, Anne
Saunders, a seasoned criminal defense veteran, says she smelled
a rat almost as soon as she and three other attorneys got the
case in the Federal Defender's office, or, as it's formally known,
the Capital Habeas Corpus Unit of the Defender Association of
Philadelphia. That was in 1999. "It's always troubling for
a lawyer when they see a conviction with no physical evidence,"
she said.
They put their top investigator,
Joe Thornton, on the case. Thornton is a salt-and-pepper-haired
man in his 50s who looks like a gumshoe from central casting.
He's methodical, affable and
shrewd. He honed his investigative skills in the country comfort
of Maine for 25 years, but he walks the streets of the Badlands
with no fear.
Says Thornton in his New England
accent, "I don't represent a threat to the people. I'm trying
to help somebody from the neighborhood. I'm a fact-finder."
In search of the facts, Thornton
investigated the record and homed in on the star witnesses, Countrie
and Greenie. He would ultimately find both men but they were
not nearly as important to him as an eyewitness that the jury
never heard about: a woman named Maria Fielding.
Woman Reported Three Young
Men
Fielding, in a statement to
police, said that she saw what happened to the FedEx driver.
In the report filed the day after the shooting, Fielding, who
is now deceased, told cops that she saw three black men in their
20s or 30s, and heard them say, "let's get him," shortly
before the shooting.
The report says she saw "the
delivery man with a package in his hands and he stepped out the
truck and took maybe two (2) or three (3) steps; and the dudes
walked right up to him. I heard a 'pow' and then a second 'pow'
and the delivery man fell backwards."
Fielding told her police interviewers
that she and her girlfriend watched the three flee.
She identified one of the men
she knew as "Tony" and another by the name "Black"
or "Blue." Thomas' attorneys note that none of the
descriptions resemble their client, who was 48 at the time.
Thornton wanted to know why
the jury in the trial never heard Fielding's version of events.
He found her husband and an
explanation. Mitchell Fielding, Maria's widower, told Thornton
in an affidavit filed with the court that, "[o]ne of the
officers approached her again at the time of trial." (She
was subpoenaed to testify for Thomas.) "As she waited in
the hall he told her that she might lose the children if she
testified, 'if she did not take a hike.'"
Defense attorneys and investigators
never found Maria Fielding. Five years later, Thornton says he
showed Mitchell Fielding photos of police officers and Fielding
identified Officer James Ryan as the cop who intimidated his
wife. Several of Thomas' family members say in affidavits recently
filed with the court that they were present when it happened
and confirm Mitchell Fielding's story.
Prosecutors place little credence
in the Fielding story and the statements of Thomas' relatives.
In their own court filings, the prosecutors argue that Fielding
never appeared in court because she was afraid of being arrested
on an outstanding warrant, and they say that in any case, her
story contradicts the physical evidence and testimony of forensics
experts. (Thomas' lawyers counter with their own experts who
believe Fielding's testimony actually explains the circumstances
better.)
Prosecutors also allege that
Fielding was a proven liar who used multiple aliases, and likely
would have been disregarded by a jury. Her police statement was
not admitted at trial in her absence because it was ruled hearsay.
Hand-Delivered Witnesses?
Thornton says he later found
James Ryan's footprints in other parts of the investigation,
and he believes Ryan hand-delivered Countrie and Greenie to the
detectives assigned to the case, even though the case was never
his.
Thornton says that Countrie
admitted that he made up what he told the jury. In a follow-up
interview and in an affidavit filed with the court, Charles "Countrie"
Rowe says that while he was drinking at his corner fire barrel
about 20 yards away, he "did not observe Fred Thomas do
anything that morning other than walk to and from the alley."
In the affidavit, Countrie also states: "He was not running,
did not seem to be upset and was not acting any differently than
he had when he had waved to us earlier."
And he added that he was frightened
by the officers who interviewed him, a detective, Charles Brown,
and Officer Ryan.
Countrie intimated in the affidavit
that the officers coerced his testimony, adding that detective
Brown, " had told me that we were suspects and our testimony
could clear us. I did not know what to do and just went along
with it."
Thornton says the other witness,
William "Greenie" Green, told him almost the same thing
in a death-bed recantation, which Thornton described in his own
affidavit filed with the court. Greenie didn't live long enough
to sign an affidavit himself.
The Ryan Connection
There's only one link, according
to Thomas' lawyers, between Maria Fielding, Countrie and Greenie
- convicted felon and former officer James Ryan.
Ryan pleaded guilty to an array
of charges in an unrelated indictment, and began serving a six-year
sentence in 1996 for misconduct and illegal activities on the
job, including searching premises without probable cause, conducting
armed illegal detentions, stealing money and property, and falsifying
police reports, affidavits and arrest and search warrants.
Three incidents among the many
that Ryan pleaded guilty to included illegally stopping and searching
people outside of his assigned district. His indictment describes
street encounters where officers would "beat, assault, intimidate
and threaten false prosecution in order to find and steal drugs
and money, and to persuade individuals to cooperate against their
sources of supply in order to provide the opportunity to make
additional arrests and steal more money."
Saunders, Thomas' lawyer, believes
there is a similarity between how she thinks Fred Thomas was
framed and Ryan's admitted crimes.
"That conduct is remarkably
consistent with the allegations we raised in the petition,"
she said.
Brian McMonagle, James Ryan's
attorney, firmly denies his client had any involvement, saying,
"I'd be interested in seeing what evidence they have to
support those allegations. The only thing [Ryan] was involved
in was bringing a guilty man to justice."
Prosecutors describe the defense's
claims against Ryan in Thomas' case as "fanciful,"
and say Ryan's crimes were committed elsewhere, five years earlier.
They say he had a "minuscule" role in arresting Thomas,
and that his lawyers are merely relying on Ryan's status as a
corrupt cop to make their case.
Drugs and Shakedowns
The Federal defenders, though,
say it's a lot more than a ploy, and point to one of the lingering
mysteries in the murder: No one knows exactly why Moyer was killed.
The lawyers say that William
Moyer was delivering FedEx packages to a phantom recipient in
a bad neighborhood. Three days after the murder, according to
court papers, an anonymous man who described himself as a Federal
Express worker called police and claimed that Moyer had "taken
some weed and had recently 'ripped off' a couple of kilos of
cocaine from a package that he was to have delivered."
An autopsy report found traces
of cocaine and methamphetamine in Moyer's system. Moyer's widow,
Joan, declined to answer questions about her husband.
Other members of the community,
more friends and relatives of Thomas, have filed affidavits saying
Ryan was known to shake down drug dealers and protect those he
worked with. In one affidavit, Thomas' cousin, Bobby Evers, recalls
witnessing a shakedown by an officer who he says other cousins
identified as Ryan. He says he saw the officer pull up in a highway
patrol car, forcing dealers to scatter except one.
According to the affidavit,
Ryan threw the dealer him up against the wall, handcuffed him,
reached into his pockets, took out a roll of bills, un-cuffed
him and told him to "Get the f--k out of here." Evers
says in the affidavit that he asked the dealer why he would allow
that, and the dealer said it wasn't a problem, smiled, and just
kept walking.
Who Killed Moyer?
Some of the most valuable evidence
in any legal appeal is new evidence that wasn't presented during
the first trial. Thornton, who goes to the Badlands sometimes
weekly, uncovered a new eyewitness.
James Wilkerson has filed an
affidavit with the court, naming the man he thinks is the killer.
The document reads, "I know that Fred Thomas did not shoot
the FedEx driver, William Moyer." Wilkerson's statement
points to a man identified by Thomas' lawyers as a dealer in
the neighborhood with a long criminal record.
Thornton believes his discovery
of Wilkerson solved the murder. "The evidence suggests that
somebody other than Fred ... shot and killed William Moyer,"
he said.
Thornton's investigation also
finds reason to believe that the dealer is an associate of a
second man who matches the description of the "Tony"
- who Maria Fielding said she saw running from the scene. That
second man is also a relative of star witness, Charles "Countrie"
Rowe.
While that information is included
in Thomas' latest court filings, none of it apparently impresses
the prosecutor who is arguing against a new trial for Fred Thomas.
Philadelphia District Attorney, Lynne Abraham, refused a request
for an interview, and has not responded in court yet to Wilkerson's
affidavit.
Citing ongoing legal hearings,
she issued a statement saying: "I have NO interest in innocent
people being in jail. If the right person is convicted for the
right crime, justice has been achieved. In the Thomas case, I
am confident that the right man was convicted."
Also unimpressed is Joan Moyer,
who believes Thomas is responsible because "his own friends
testified against him."
She also knows she must live
without her husband, who had her name tattooed on his body, and
be reminded of her loss every year. "Christmastime is always
a difficult time for us," she said, eight years after the
killing. "My 14-year-old daughter is still having a tough
time with it."
Time Is Expiring
Thomas' relatives, friends
and lawyers are struggling, too. They fear he will die having
spent the final years of his life in his cold cell, never getting
the chance to clear his name.
"I hope he stays alive
long enough to see us put his case on," said Anne Saunders,
pausing to wipe away tears. If not, she says, "I will be
disappointed as will a lot of other people."
Thomas thinks prosecutors are
trying to end an embarrassing case through what he perceives
as intentional delays and a motion to dismiss his appeal.
"The DA's office is waiting
for me to die," Thomas told ABCNEWS.
The wait may not be long.
Michael McAuliff contributed
to this report.
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