A man that had been imprisoned for almost 40 years was released from prison on Monday. This was after a judge decided that his conviction would be overturned.
71-year-old Harold Staten had been convicted after prosecutors stated that he had set a fire. It caused the death of a Philadelphia man in 1984. This was after the man’s residence had burst into flames. Charles Harris and three other people jumped from the residences second floor. However, Harris died from severe burns three days following the fire.
After the science was considered to be faulty and reviewing different accounts from a teen after the fire, on Monday, the judge overturned the conviction. Staten had received life in prison without parole for arson, second-degree murder, and other offenses.
The DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit hired a forensic exper. The expert noted that the original cause determinations of the blaze couldn’t be accurate when looked at through modern investigation standards. It was added that the cause of the fire should be listed as undetermined, not arson.
Original records show that the determination was the use of a fire accelerant. This was because of the extensive damage and the fire pattern on the floor in the entryway. The district attorney’s office stated that is only proof that a fire happened.
Prosecutors in the first case had said that Staten started the fire because of a disagreement over a bug spray can that was missing. They said that he had poured accelerant into the residence’s front entrance to start the fire.
After the fire, a 17-year-old girl had first said that she hadn’t seen Staten close to the residence around the time of the fire. However, when she was questioned later, she said that she had seen him close to the front entrance. The teenager also confessed to using cocaine the night of the occurrence.
Years after that, new details emerged. This included testimony from her roommate who had said the teen was extremely intoxicated the evening of the fire.
“Ultimately, it was Mr. Staten’s own relentless efforts to prove his innocence that led to this result,” stated the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
