... And Justice for All

It appears that Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett were eyewitnesses whose moral sense moved them to make a conscientious decision to interrupt from a distance, a crime that was already in progress; sadly, they were a nanosecond too late . This is consistent with statements from the government's own witnesses who told police during their interviews that each time Dwayne targeted someone to rob, that they collectively talked him out of it. Why would Reid and Carlton Bennett have acted any less for Mr. Janke? This might also answer why neither Reid nor his co-defendant could be placed in proximity to Mr. Janke and the lone, confessed killer when he shot Mr. Janke.

Soon after his conviction, Reid had his case appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court. At Reid's request, his trial lawyer, former Judge Wallace, filed the appeal on his behalf. Reid said that Wallace did not inform him in a timely manner that the Superior Court had denied his request, thus denying him his right to file an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court within the specified timeframe. He said that he initiated contact with Wallace when he had not heard from him in four months. According to Reid, Wallace wrote to him saying, "I was unaware that you did not know that I did not have the best of staff; your case was placed in storage."

Over the years, Reid has continued to fight for justice through the appeals process. In 2003, a U.S. District Court judge convened an evidentiary hearing at which time Reid's trial attorney - Michael Wallace, and former government witness Tyrone Mackey testified. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Buzz Bissinger was also there and testified to the fact that the incidents cited in his book, "A Prayer for the City," were all true. Former prosecutor McGovern testified on the behalf of the government. At this evidentiary hearing, Reid introduced the payments made to government witnesses as well as the exculpatory statements made by Tyrone Mackey to McGovern (trial prosecutor). Reid also introduced the fact that McGovern had threatened Mackey.

Later that same year, U.S. District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell dismissed Reid's habeas corpus petition, sending it to a higher level court (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit), despite the fact that he himself cited how Reid had made a "substantial showing of the denial of his constitutional rights under Brady v. Maryland ." According to Reid, Judge Dalzell cited several reasons for dismissing his petition; chief among them was the fact that he felt that the former prosecutor's (Michael McGovern) testimony "lacked credibility".

In 2004, Mr. Reid then appealed to a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. They unanimously affirmed the District Court's decision in spite of the fact that newly discovered exculpatory evidence had been uncovered. Reid, who has never had an infraction during his many years of incarceration, has recently hired Mr. Kevin V. Mincey, Esq. to help him fight this injustice.

Giovanni Reid told me that on the day of his 2003 evidentiary hearing that he and former government witness, Tyrone Mackey, had the chance to talk for the first time since his arrest and conviction. He said that Tyrone used this encounter to explain why he lied during his testimony on the witness stand. Reid said that Mackey told him that someone in the prosecutor's office had lied to him, his brother Richard and their friend, Dajuan Bennett (the three government witnesses). He said that Mackey told him that they had been told that the defendants had threatened their lives, hence the need for protective custody.

In 1999, Tyrone Mackey (former government witness) was interviewed by a private investigator (PI), Wayne W. Schmidt, Sr. This was done at the behest of Reid's appellate attorney, Mr. Daniel A. Silverman, Esq. To paraphrase, Mr. Schmidt wrote that Mackey recalled how the police had used scare tactics and intimidation to elicit false statements from him. He provided him with several examples, one of which was how a detective commented about his then pregnant girlfriend, telling him that, "I had a pretty girlfriend," which was then followed by, "it was better if I gave a statement, otherwise, I may not see them for a long time." After one of the detectives left to take Mackey's girlfriend home, Mackey told Mr. Schmidt (P.I.) that the detectives interrogated him, his brother Richard King and Dajuan Bennett for several hours. (They were placed in separate rooms during interrogation.)***

* ** *** All prior references to Tyrone Mackey talking to a Private Investigator are a result of the same notarized document described above.

Mr. Mackey recounted for Mr. Schmidt the time when he told a police sergeant that he did not want to testify. He said that the officer took him for a walk and suggested to him that they were doing him a favor and that he could bust him on a drug charge if he did not cooperate. Feeling defeated, Mackey told the investigator, "If I didn't, they could lump me into the whole thing and charge me with murder or conspiracy, so I just go with the flow - and, I did." In addition, Reid said that Mackey told him how McGovern had bullied and threatened them. He said that Mackey also told him that McGovern threatened to charge him with murder if he did not cooperate by testifying against him. This type of accusation is consistent with the type of bullying tactics that author Buzz Bissinger wrote about.

Only sixteen-years old at the time, Reid told me how he became frightened after the shooting and took off running along with everyone else. He said that all of them eventually ended up, albeit minutes apart, back where they had started out from that morning, which was the home of Tyrone and Richard. Dwayne and Carlton , who had not been with them when they first set out that morning, also ran there. Reportedly, before returning to his home, Tyrone stopped by his uncle's house, woke him up and told him what Dwayne had done (Again, about what Dwayne had done.).

In a passage from Buzz Bissinger's book, he wrote about how McGovern had taken a stab at what made Dwayne Bennett tick. In a reference to Dwayne, Buzz wrote that McGovern referred to him as, "cold-blooded". I would venture to say that most would agree with that label, including the innocent eyewitnesses who became unfairly swept up in the judicial process (Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett). The fact that McGovern stuck to the boogeyman story in his opening statement might be reflective of how he views people from certain socio-economic backgrounds. A possible example of this can be found in Bissinger's book. Quoting from selected sentences from a passage that Buzz attributed to McGovern's take on what made confessed killer, Dwayne Bennett tick, he wrote, "His attitude seemed unfathomable, unless perhaps you were part of the same environment of vacant houses and public high rises and dishwasher jobs that had yielded him."

Public records show that McGovern was not the only one to ponder over what could have possessed Dwayne to commit such a vicious act. Reid said that they were all shocked and saddened by it. He said that all five of them confronted Dwayne and began to fuss at him. Further, Reid told me that when they asked Dwayne why he did it, that he nonchalantly replied, "So, I've killed four other people before." After that response, he said that they ceased questioning him.

In his police interview statement, Richard King corroborated the fact that the group had confronted Dwayne when he said, ". And we were all telling Wayne that it wasn't cool what he did, and he said, 'I don't give a f-k what you all think!' " In addition, Tyrone Mackey gave a similar statement during his police interview. He told the police that when he asked "Wayne" (Dwayne) why he did it, that he answered, "Well, that's just me, that's just me, that's my fourth body, that don't worry me no more." [sic] Mackey said that Dwayne continued, asking him, "What do you want to do, shoot me? I'll give you the gun."

Tyrone Mackey told the detective during his interview, "Everybody was saying it's on their conscious and Wayne (Dwayne) said, 'I don't see what you worried about, if the cops come, I'll tell them that I did it, it ain't no big deal. I did it before, I got four bodies.'" It is conceivable that all of the recollections are accurate and that Reid's must have been the last response by a now seemingly agitated Dwayne. (Dwayne's comment about handing over his gun might connote that he is the only one in possession of a gun.)

Three lives have been permanently altered as a result of Dwayne Bennett's vicious and mean-spirited act. Both Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett were convicted of conspiracy to robbery and murder. Both were found not guilty of possession of a gun. Just to think that they were found guilty despite the fact that they did not fit Ms. Hill's description of the assailants is a scary thought. Hill had described the assailants as being five feet tall. Reid contends that he was six feet tall then as he is now.

It is my strong belief that Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett were not in proximity to Dwayne to have even contemplated a conspiracy to commit robbery and murder. I base my opinion on the following facts: (1.) All three of the government's involved witnesses (Dwayne's cousin included) told the police that Dwayne did it, (2.) All three gave graphic examples of Dwayne's predatory behavior on that morning, (3.) All three expressed how throughout that morning that they, Giovanni Reid and Carlton Bennett were non-compliant when Dwayne solicited them to help him rob someone, and lastly, (4.) All angrily lashed out at Dwayne afterwards. The information that I gathered after poring over official documents (witness statements, trial transcripts, affidavit, etc.) all helped to bring me to my conclusion.

Dwayne's reported responses illustrated that McGovern was right about him being cold-blooded. It is conceivable that Dwayne chose not to announce his plan this time because he knew that Reid and Carlton would try and talk him out of it. Remember, before Reid and Carlton realized that Dwayne was no longer walking with them, they had already passed Mr. Janke by when he was at the phone booth. This would be consistent with Mackey's statement that Dwayne always lagged behind everyone else.

Reid and the others certainly proved him wrong on his misconception about where moral consciousness resides. It appears that each of the young men who witnessed the dastardly crime had a moral conscious. So, I guess moral values are not rooted in which side of the track one is from after all. I think most will agree that what Dwayne did was morally unconscionable. Buzz Bissinger wrote that McGovern called it "unfathomable".

Well, do you want to know what else could be considered unconscionable and "unfathomable" outside of Dwayne's vicious and dastardly act? Robbing an innocent sixteen-year-old adolescent of his youth and innocence because he happened to have been in the wrong company. Anyone that might have played a role in wedging the unshapen puzzle piece with Reid and Carlton Bennett's picture on it into the puzzle's frame board, is by no means in any position to claim the moral high ground.

Mr. Reid has never denied being closer to the end of the block to where Dwayne stood with Mr. Janke (at least fifteen feet away). And, he has always contended that he and Carlton were taking their time strolling down the street while engrossed in conversation. Being closer to the end of the block to where a crime is occurring does not place one on the very site of where it is happening while it is happening. How many times have we seen television news footage of people scrambling for cover after they've found themselves caught in the immediate area of an unsuspected burst of gunfire?

It was proven that Dwayne Bennett had a gun that morning and used it. The question is whether or not he had co-conspirators. But, why would Dwayne need accomplices for a man that was not armed? And why would Dwayne think that two people who had been dismissing his offer to rob someone would suddenly change their minds and help him out?

What were the crime statistics in Philadelphia on random street violence like, in particular, murder against strangers, during the time of Reid's arrest? Could the climate at the time have contributed to his fate? The answer to these questions might help to shed some light on why the jury convicted a visibly, six-foot, light-skinned youth when Ms. Hill, the independent eyewitness described the assailants as five feet and dark-skinned. Giving some consideration to the jury, they had not been told about the bag lady nor the Black lady who Dr. Finalle said told him that she witnessed what happened but like Ms. Hill, had to leave for work. He said that the woman who told him that was wearing a "windbreaker-type jacket." Reid himself had never given any consideration to the bag lady. Nevertheless, if the jury had known about these two shadowy figures, who knows, they just might have returned a different verdict.

Sadly, Mr. Janke's life has been permanently altered, but it is not too late to right the wrong that was done to the two eyewitnesses who tried to intervene on his behalf. When the canvas was flipped over, it showed that a different picture had already been drawn. The softened picture showed Reid and Bennett as good Samaritans, and not co-conspirators to robbery and murder as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania proved, albeit with questionable and suspect testimony. Unfortunately, Reid and Bennett just happened to have been the two that ended up walking with a miscreant who was hell-bent on destruction.

Rosie's (my daughter) investigation has uncovered evidence that appears to show that the same Lorraine Hill who testified at Reid's trial, does have a background that includes homelessness. Mere coincidence? You be the judge. Rosie and I will continue to believe in Giovanni Reid's innocence. The sticking points outlined in this story are too significant to just be ignored. For a better insight into how Ms. Hill seemingly lingered in the immediate area as the crime was unfolding, and how both Reid's attorney and his co-defendant's attorney hammered away at her to make some sense of her behavior, please click on, "Trial Excerpts".

On the "Trial Excerpts" link, you will also read how the presiding judge interrupted the co-defendant's counsel during his cross-examination of Ms. Hill. It seems that he was trying to ascertain from her just how the police knew about her and how they knew that they would be able to find her when they did, no doubt, in the same neighborhood where the crime had taken place. You will also get to read the dialogue between Reid's co-defendant's attorney and Ms. Hill about her nursing skills. In addition, you will read how both attorneys were very methodical in questioning her about her whereabouts while the crime was occurring. Read how they asked her, her position point by point. Whereas most would have taken flight at their earliest opportunity, it seems that Ms. Hill felt quite comfortable being there.

Rosie's newly acquired skills as a gumshoe have led her to the doorsteps of a major figure in this case. She has also pinpointed the locations of two other key figures. Visit our link for updates.