By The Vanguard Staff
PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Court of Common Pleas here Thursday granted a motion by the prosecution to dismiss all charges against Edward “Eddie” Ramirez, whose conviction for a 1995 murder was vacated by the court earlier in November.
The current prosecutor’s office apologized for the error, calling the actions of previous administrations to not look more closely at the case “unacceptable and outrageous.”
In a statement, Assistant District Attorney David Napiorski of the DA’s Law Division Federal Litigation Unit, said, “In 1998, Eddie Ramirez was convicted of 2nd Degree Murder for the killing of Joyce Dennis in the back room of a laundromat in 1995.
“No physical evidence was tied to any suspect, and the Commonwealth’s case at trial relied on cooperating co-defendant William Weihe and three other teenagers who alleged they overheard Ramirez speak about the murder. Ramirez argued he was not present and was not involved in the murder, though at the time those arguments had little corroboration.”
Napiorski added, “For more than 25 years, however, the Commonwealth withheld substantial evidence that supported Ramirez’s trial defense. Despite the existence of this evidence, prior DA administrations presented argument to the trial court as well as various post-conviction courts that was either directly refuted or called into question by the withheld evidence.
“It was not until District Attorney Larry Krasner took office that withheld evidence was provided to Ramirez as part of his Post Conviction Relief Act litigation.”
The prosecutor strongly criticized the former DA, charging, “The failure by prior DAs to disclose this evidence to Ramirez – which he had always been entitled to under the U.S. Constitution – was unacceptable and outrageous.
“On behalf of the DAO, I apologize to the Court, to the victim’s family, and to Mr. Ramirez and his family for the effect that past violations of his rights had on this case and on everyone involved.”
Napiorski explained, “Additionally, though prior administrations unacceptably fought the testing, DNA testing was more recently performed on a number of items related to this investigation: underneath the victim’s fingernails, the murder weapon, and a fleece vest used to wipe down the murder weapon. Mr. Ramirez was excluded as a contributor to the male DNA found on all three of these items.”
