Man free after 37 years due to ‘sex for lies’ false witness

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia man has been freed from prison after 37 years in a case tarnished by detectives who allegedly offered a witness sex and drugs at police headquarters in exchange for false testimony. The trial witness was charged with perjury days after Willie Stokes was convicted of murder in 1984. But Stokes was never told of that perjury plea until 2015 while serving a life sentence. Stokes, now 61, walked out of a state prison near Philadelphia on Tuesday eager to hug his mother and get a corned beef hoagie. A federal judge has called the violation of his constitutional rights “egregious.”