WILMINGTON, Del. — More than three decades after Jermaine “Marlow” Wright was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a case with no physical evidence tying him to the crime and evidence favorable to his defense withheld by prosecutors, a Delaware court has issued him a Certificate of Innocence and ordered his 1992 murder conviction expunged.
The Death Penalty Information Center identified Wright as the 203rd person exonerated from death row in the United States since 1973 and the second person exonerated from Delaware’s death row. Superior Court Judge Calvin Scott issued the order July 23, according to the organization.
Wright was convicted in 1992 of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and related weapons charges in connection with the 1991 robbery of the Hi-Way Inn liquor store and the killing of clerk Phillip Seifert.
The prosecution did not present fingerprints, fibers, shoe prints, the murder weapon, shell casings or an eyewitness who identified Wright as the person responsible. Instead, the case relied heavily on a confession Wright gave while under the influence of heroin and testimony from a jailhouse informant who later recanted.
Wright was 18 when he was arrested and spent nearly 25 years on Delaware’s death row, according to a statement from attorney James Moreno. Moreno wrote that Wright spent decades in solitary confinement, survived two scheduled execution dates and watched other prisoners from his cell block be taken away for execution.
Questions about Wright’s conviction continued for years as courts reviewed claims that prosecutors withheld evidence favorable to the defense.
In 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned Wright’s conviction and death sentence after finding that the combined effect of multiple violations under Brady v. Maryland created a reasonable probability that the jury would have reached a different verdict if the evidence had been disclosed.
The withheld evidence included information that could have been used to challenge the credibility of the jailhouse informant. It also included evidence concerning another attempted liquor store robbery that occurred less than an hour before the Hi-Way Inn crime.
The suspects in that earlier incident reportedly matched similar descriptions and used a similar weapon.
The state’s highest court found Wright was entitled to a fair trial in which material evidence favorable to the defense was disclosed. The court reversed his conviction and death sentence and returned the case for a new trial.
But the reversal did not immediately end Wright’s ordeal. Prosecutors filed charges again, leaving him to face another trial and the possibility of another death sentence or life without parole.
In 2016, Wright entered a no-contest plea to second-degree murder and received a sentence of time served. He was released after approximately 24 years of incarceration while continuing to maintain that he was innocent.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Wright said at the time that after spending 24 years in prison, he simply wanted to return home.
Moreno described the plea as an impossible choice between risking another severe sentence at trial or accepting a lesser charge that allowed Wright to leave prison. The plea later created an additional barrier to obtaining wrongful-conviction compensation because Wright still had a conviction on his record.
That changed after Delaware enacted the Wrongful Conviction Compensation and Services Act in 2025. According to Moreno, the law created a path for people whose convictions had been overturned but who later accepted certain pleas to establish their innocence and seek compensation.
Wright’s legal team continued working to clear his record after his release. The recent court order grants an expungement, formally removes the conviction and makes Wright eligible for compensation for the years he was wrongfully incarcerated.
The state has also settled his wrongful-conviction compensation claim, Moreno said.
Wright’s case demonstrates how prosecutorial failures, withheld evidence and unreliable testimony can contribute to a wrongful conviction carrying the most severe punishment available under the law. Without physical evidence placing Wright at the scene, jurors were asked to rely on a confession taken while he was impaired and testimony from an informant whose credibility later came under serious challenge.
It also illustrates how overturning a wrongful conviction does not necessarily bring an immediate end to the consequences of that conviction. Wright’s death sentence was vacated in 2014, but he continued facing prosecution, accepted a plea to secure his release in 2016 and waited another decade before receiving a Certificate of Innocence and an expungement.
Moreno wrote that no legal ruling or financial settlement could restore the years Wright lost. However, the new order changes the official record to reflect that Wright was innocent and wrongfully convicted.
“Nothing can restore what was taken from him,” Moreno wrote in his statement, adding that the exoneration brought a measure of accountability after 35 years.
To comment please go to one of these social media platforms:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavisVanguard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peoples-vanguard-of-davis-inc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davisvanguard/
X: https://x.com/davisvanguard
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/vanguardnewsgroup.bsky.social
Subscribe to the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
