April 16–23, 1998
city beat
Baker's Two Dozen
After 24 years in jail for a crime he says he did not commit, Eddie Baker is still awaiting his court-ordered retrial.
by John McNally
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"It takes time for a |
It has been said that the wheels of justice turn slowly. Few people in the state of Pennsylvania know that better that Eddie Baker, who grew up in the 2500 block of Manton Street in South Philly.
Baker, 41, has been in jail since he was 17 years old for a murder he, his family, his attorneys and his advocates swear he didn't commit. Even the man convicted of murder with Baker in 1974 has testified in court that Baker was not involved in the crime. In August 1997, Common Pleas Court Judge C. Darnell Jones ruled that Baker did not receive a fair trial 24 years ago and he ordered a retrial. A week later, Jones granted Baker bail. But seven months later Baker sits in the state correctional facility at Mahanoy in Frackville, Schuylkill County. Appeals by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office have kept Baker behind bars and he could sit in prison for up to two more years before, or if, he receives the new trial granted by Jones. And while Baker's family, friends and attorneys are outraged at the delays in his case, astonishingly for Baker, he remains calm and anger-free about his predicament.
"It takes time for a miracle to happen," Baker said last week during a phone conversation from prison. "It has taken 24 years to expose the injustice done to me. Even though it may take a few more years, it will happen. I didn't do anything to be here. That and my belief in God is the perfect combination to set me free."
Baker spends his days reading books, writing letters and praying. He said he just tries the best he can to deal with the justice system. Baker tries not to dwell on his problems. His faith helps him, but it still gets tough at times.
"It's hard in a sense that I have nothing really to think about. I have no idea how long this will take," he said. "I have gotten to the point where I proved my innocence and now I'm just stuck. This process could take years. I have to keep the faith that the appellate court will fully exonerate me."
Baker's faith in the appellate court is remarkable considering that rulings by the State Superior Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court are what's keeping him behind bars now. Just after Jones granted Baker bail in September 1997, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Diviny petitioned the appellate court for an emergency stay and Superior Court Judge James Cavanaugh granted it. Diviny has also appealed the new trial order, but that case has yet to reach the briefing stage, according to Baker's attorney Leonard Sosnov, of the Widener University School of Law.
Sosnov petitioned the State Superior Court to reverse the emergency stay on Baker's bail, but the court refused to hear the appeal. In October 1997, the State Supreme Court voted 7-0 to deny Baker bail. Sosnov has been back in court trying to get the Superior Court to review Cavanaugh's emergency stay. "An emergency stay cannot be the final order," Sosnov said last week. "An emergency stay is supposed to be temporary until a board of three judges reviews it."
But the Superior Court has refused to review Cavanaugh's decision and Sosnov has gone back to the Supreme Court for justice.
"I want the Supreme Court to release my client on bail or tell the Superior Court to decide this case," Sosnov said. "My client is being hurt by the Superior Court's indecision." Both Sosnov and the DA's Office have filed briefs with the Supreme Court concerning the emergency stay review. Diviny did not return calls last week, but in the past he has said that he believes Baker is guilty and that the testimony given at the new trial hearing was false.
Donahue Wise was the man who implicated Baker in the murder of Steven Gibbons, 75, of the 1200 block of South 24th Street, in 1973. In the new hearing Wise told the judge that Baker was not involved and that Wise himself murdered Gibbons.
The murder victim had been hog-tied, gagged and an ice pick was plunged into the back of his neck. He was naked from the waist down, his face bloody and beaten. The home had been ransacked. Three men were arrested for the murder: Clifford Walker, then 17, from the 2400 block of Federal Street; Donahue Wise, then 21, from the 1200 block of South 24th Street; and Baker, then 17. Wise testified against Walker and Baker, both of whom were tried as adults. Wise told the court that Walker had concocted the idea of robbing Gibbons of cash he supposedly had stashed in his home. He also said that Walker stabbed the victim while Baker forced bleach down his throat.
Walker and Baker were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Wise was sentenced to three to 12 years, and was released after three years.
After a second trial, Walker was re-sentenced when it was determined that police improperly questioned him as a juvenile. He served a few more years and was then released. Walker has since died and Wise is paralyzed from the waist down. Wise cannot be retried for the crime. "The only evidence they ever had against Eddie was the testimony of Donahue Wise and they don't have that anymore," Sosnov has said. "There's really no evidence against him. There never was except for the word of somebody who was unbelievable and unreliable from the start. It's very doubtful that there will be another trial in this case."
Throughout his fight to vindicate himself, Baker has received the help of Jim McCloskey, the founder of the Centurion Ministries, a Princeton, NJ-based non-profit organization that works to free prisoners believed to be innocent. Including the Baker case, McCloskey has helped 19 innocent men get their life or death sentences overturned since 1980. Baker believes that the state's case against him is now so weak that they have to do everything they can to prevent a retrial.
"Absolutely. That is the bottom line," Baker said. "They have no evidence against me. The only way to keep me here indefinitely is to have that new trial order overturned. They have their right to appeal. They are taking full advantage of that. It's the only recourse they have."
So Baker sits and waits. However, life has not stopped for Baker. When his case started making news a few years ago a former lady friend of his, Luzetta Thorne, of the 2600 block of Oakford Street in Grays Ferry, began writing him.
The pair struck up a relationship and Thorne, 39, has become one of his greatest supporters. She has attended every one of his hearings and visits him in prison on a regular basis. Just this February the couple became even closer.
"It was in early February when Eddie was still in CFCF [Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia]. I was there for a visit and I told him I had something to ask him. I proposed to him. He was very surprised," she said.
Thorne said the appeals process gets her and Baker's family down, but they all believe he will get out of prison. "We're still full of hope," she said. "We're praying that one day this year Eddie will be home."
As for Baker, he said the truth and God will set him free.
"I do believe that I will get out. The facts are the facts. The fact is that I'm innocent. I don't believe that God would bring me this far and let me go."
