A former police officer who supported Joe Hall's innocence claim has been arrested in a Moon Township prostitution sting:
Talib Kevin Ghafoor, 55, was charged with promoting prostitution, conspiracy and other crimes after the bust, which happened about 6:30 p.m. at the Courtyard Marriot.
Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story here. Read the Innocence Institute's story about Joe Hall, "Body of …
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Former Police Officer Who Testified to Support a Juvenile Lifer’s Innocence Claim Arrested in Prostitution Sting
Former Death Row Inmate Sentenced to Prison for Threats

By Marie DoRego
inn_inst[at]pointpark[dot]edu
March 14, 2011
Ernest Simmons, who was freed in May 2010 after spending 18 years on death row for the 1992 slaying of an elderly Johnstown, Pa. woman, is imprisoned again for threatening to dismember a man who slept with his girlfriend in the halfway house where he resided.
A Cambria County judge decided that Simmons' threats -- he allegedly said …
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Thomas Porter’s unusual plea to the Superior Court dismissed

By Marie DoRego
inn_inst[at]pointpark[dot]edu
March 14, 2011
While Thomas Porter's original lawyer long ago stated another man confessed his role in the 1999 beating and robbery of an elderly McKeesport man that sent him to prison for a maximum of 24 years, an appeals court has denied his appeal.
In a six-page opinion, however, a three-judge panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court did not …
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Former Death Row Inmate Back Behind Bars

FlAGalleryErnest Simmons is accused of threatening to kill a halfway house acquaintance and feed him to barnyard pigs
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By Marie DoRego
inn_inst[at]pointpark[dot]edu
February 14, 2011
Less than a year after Ernest Simmons was freed from nearly two decades on death row in the brutal murder of an elderly Johnstown, Pa. woman, he is back in jail, this time for threatening to …
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Body of Lies: Joe Hall And The Convoluted Testimony That Landed Him In Prison

A witness's baffling statements landed Joe Hall in prison on a 35-year murder rap. Will the witness's testimony stand?
by Marie DoRego
inn_inst@pointpark.edu
Published December 2010
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Allen Strothers' first lie about the 2006 drive-by shooting that left a teenager dead was a 911 call he made, falsely reporting that his blue Kia Sephia had been stolen after he saw TV news …
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Weimer Loses Appeal
More than two years after Crystal Weimer appealed her conviction, the PA Supreme Court affirmed her sentence in a six page opinion last week.
By Marie Do Rego
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Crystal Weimer's appeal last week, solidifying her 14 and-a-half to 30-year sentence for the 2001 murder of Curtis Haith. Weimer appealed her …
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Weimer Case Rejected by State’s Top Court
Conviction Stands Despite Questionable Witnesses and Controversial Forensic Debate
By Marie Do Rego
Innocence Institute of Point Park University
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a Fayette County woman sentenced to as much as 30 years in prison in the death of man who was beaten, bitten and shot after a night of revelry in 2001.
In a six-page …
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