PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — A Philadelphia Inquirer and ProPublica investigation published May 19 found at least 50 people whose court-appointed post-conviction lawyers told judges there was no basis to challenge their cases, only for judges to later grant them new trials or sentences.
According to the investigation, Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act allows incarcerated people to raise newly discovered evidence or argue that their previous lawyer mishandled their case. The state provides an attorney, but that attorney can argue against the client’s claims and withdraw by filing a “no-merit” letter.
The practice traces to a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Dorothy Finley had no constitutional right to an attorney at the post-conviction stage.
The reporters analyzed three years of invoices from 83 homicide cases in which lawyers filed no-merit letters. They found that about three-quarters of the time, the attorneys did not arrange a single phone call with the client, contact the trial lawyer or obtain police or prosecution case files.
One case involved Milique Wagner, who was convicted of murder in 2013. According to the investigation, court records show his appointed lawyer never spoke with the informant who later confessed to the murder and instead urged the judge in 2017 to dismiss his client’s petition.
Wagner remained in prison about six more years before prosecutors acknowledged that police had hidden evidence suggesting the informant had committed the murder. He later agreed to a plea deal for third-degree murder that allowed him to leave prison while maintaining his innocence.
Wagner said he knew the lawyer “wasn’t going to fight for me.”
Stephen T. O’Hanlon, the attorney appointed to Wagner’s case, filed no-merit letters for nine clients who later had their convictions or sentences overturned. O’Hanlon told the reporters that the attorney code of ethics prevents him from making arguments he knows to be false or frivolous.
Judge Barbara McDermott, who oversaw many of these cases before retiring, defended the system, saying it was “working as intended” and that no-merit letters play an important role in dismissing challenges that lack merit.
However, Jennifer Merrigan, co-founder of the nonprofit law firm Phillips Black, said the letters “routinely contain adversarial language and often breach confidentiality to use information lawyers have uncovered against the clients.”
Robert Dunham, who spent years training attorneys across Pennsylvania to litigate death penalty appeals, said lawyers too often limit their review to issues their clients have raised. He argued that their responsibility is to reinvestigate the entire case to identify issues previous lawyers may have missed.
The Citizens Police Oversight Commission’s 2025 annual report states that Philadelphia paid $22,540,998 in fiscal 2025 to resolve 58 lawsuits involving intentional police misconduct. The report says the largest settlements involved wrongful murder convictions.
Four cases settled for $7.875 million, $4.2 million, $1.955 million and $800,000, while three other wrongful conviction claims settled for $210,000, $200,000 and $180,000, according to the report.
In a separate case, an Aug. 18 federal court opinion in Hicks v. City of Philadelphia detailed the financial consequences of another wrongful conviction.
Termaine Hicks’ 2002 rape conviction was overturned 18 years later. In subsequent civil litigation, a federal jury found that Philadelphia police officers had fabricated evidence, concealed or suppressed evidence and conspired to violate his constitutional rights.
The jury also found that the city’s policies and failure to supervise or discipline officers contributed to those violations, awarding Hicks $3 million in damages.
In the August opinion, U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy wrote, “Mr. Hicks is clearly a prevailing party,” noting that he had succeeded on multiple significant issues and prevailed on every claim at trial.
The court awarded Hicks’ attorneys $4,941,498.75 in fees and $235,316.21 in litigation costs, totaling $5,176,814.96. The award was separate from the $3 million in damages granted by the jury.
It is unclear whether the city has paid the attorney-fee award or appealed the decision.
Meanwhile, the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which provides legal representation to low-income residents, has requested additional funding to sustain its operations amid rising costs and growing demands for legal services.
In her fiscal 2027 budget testimony, Chief Defender Keisha Hudson described the organization as the largest criminal defense law firm in Pennsylvania and requested $74,116,000, an increase of approximately $5.1 million over fiscal 2026.
The proposed increase would cover labor obligations, rising operating costs, immigration legal services and programs intended to reduce unnecessary incarceration.
According to the testimony, the Defender Association employs 534 people, including 256 attorneys, and represented more than 30,000 clients in over 62,000 cases during the previous year.
The budget request addresses the association’s broader operations and does not specifically identify wrongful conviction litigation as the reason for the proposed funding increase.
The Inquirer and ProPublica reporters said they are continuing to investigate Philadelphia’s post-conviction representation system and are seeking tips from lawyers, judges and people fighting wrongful convictions.
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