What to Know
- A man released from death row last week after prosecutors concluded he very likely was not the person who killed a 4-year-old girl is now also free of all charges.
- A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday dismissed all remaining charges against Walter Ogrod over the 1988 slaying of Barbara Jean Horn.
- The 55-year-old Ogrod has been out of prison since Friday, when charges were reduced and he was granted bail. The dismissal of the remaining charges puts an end to his legal case.
A man released from death row last week after prosecutors concluded he very likely was not the person who killed a 4-year-old girl is now also free of all charges, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Philadelphia Judge Leon Tucker dismissed all remaining charges against Walter Ogrod over the 1988 slaying of Barbara Jean Horn.
Ogrod, 55, got out of prison on Friday after charges were reduced and he was granted bail. He spent nearly three decades incarcerated, much of it on death row.
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“This was hanging out there," Ogrod's lawyer, Andrew Gallo, said. “He's very ecstatic to have this resolved."
Ogrod's lawyers say police coerced a false confession and jailhouse informers fabricated statements from him.
The victim was found in a TV box on the curbside near her family's Philadelphia home in July 1988. She had suffered head wounds.
Ogrod's first trial ended in a mistrial when a juror announced he did not agree with a not guilty verdict that was being read. He was convicted after a second trial, in 1996.
