There are many men, and several women, on Pennsylvania’s death row, but few are like Shorty. Shorty, known to courts and counsel as James Dennis, has been on death row for over 20 years. For 20 long and terrible years, he has lived in a cell the size of an apartment bathroom, fighting for his freedom, his life, his very sanity. That’s because for all this time he’s been protesting his innocence of the 1991 killing of Chedell Williams, an adorable high school girl who was robbed of her earrings and fatally shot.
Shorty, arrested for the crime several weeks thereafter, based upon eyewitness testimony, had every reason to expect an acquittal as he had alibi evidence that seemed rock solid. At the time of the crime, He was in another part of town, according to his dad, and an acquaintance who saw him on a bus quite distant from the girl’s shooting. I said he was somewhat different from others; how so? Shorty had no significant criminal history. There was no physical evidence tying him to the killing, and of course, that alibi, right? Well, wrong. For the Commonwealth played hide the ball by hiding alibi evidence, by losing physical evidence, and letting witnesses testify falsely, knowingly. Citing the 1963 Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, a federal judge in Philadelphia last month threw out his murder conviction and his death sentence.
U.S. Judge Anita Brody wrote of Shorty, he was “wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to die, for a crime in all probability he did not commit.” Miss Williams was a tall girl, standing 5’10. Shorty was, is, 5’5. Almost all the eyewitnesses said the shooter was almost as tall, or taller, than the victim. Police literally ignored evidence from other sources, and prosecutors hid evidence from Dennis’ lawyers until 16 years after trial. Shorty Dennis, perhaps one day soon, will walk free from two decades in hell, but it’s a sure bet he’ll never be free of the memory of life on death row. From in prison nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio
