May 26, 2026
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
After serving 28 years in prison, Jermal Shuler, Marc Brittingham and Rasheed Smith were exonerated for killing a North Philadelphia woman in 1997.
Three men convicted of killing a 73-year-old woman in North Philadelphia in 1997 have been exonerated after spending more than 28 years in prison.
Jermal Shuler, 46, Marc Brittingham, 47, and Rasheed Smith, 47, were expected to be released from prison Tuesday, District Attorney Larry Krasner said. A judge vacated their convictions after new evidence discredited testimony given during their trial.
The woman, Essie Thomas, was found dead by her nephew in her home on Nov. 10, 1997. She had been repeatedly beaten and stabbed. A neighbor claimed to have seen the three men leave her home two nights before — a Saturday — but no physical evidence connected them to the homicide, Krasner said.
A Philadelphia medical examiner, Bennett Preston, testified that the autopsy results showed Thomas was killed on that Saturday night. But the autopsy report never specified her time or date of death, the men's lawyers said.
As part of the DA Office's post-conviction investigation into the case, two other medical examiners concluded that the time of death cited by Preston was unlikely. They estimated that Thomas died 24 hours after the neighbor claimed to have seen the men leaving the house.
Additionally, the neighbor "lied in ways that are demonstrable" throughout the case in order to benefit herself, Krasner said. That included telling investigators that she was under pressure at the time of her testimony.
"We have a time of death that is completely wrong and we have a witness who's a liar," Krasner said during a press conference. "This conviction has no integrity. … I wish we could go back and reinvestigate this thing from the very beginning."
A jury found the three men guilty of second-degree murder in 1999. They each received mandatory life sentences, court documents show. Attorneys for Shuler, Brittingham and Smith repeatedly requested further DNA testing in attempt to prove their innocence.
"For nearly three decades, Mr. Shuler, Mr. Brittingham and Mr. Smith maintained their innocence while serving time for a crime they did not commit," the defense attorneys said in a statement. "... These convictions lacked reliable evidence and rested on deeply flawed forensic testimony."
