Walter Ogrod wins $9.1 million after wrongful conviction in Barbara Jean Horn murder case
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A man who spent more than 20 years on death row for a murder he didn't commit is about to get millions of dollars from Philadelphia.
Lawyers for Walter Ogrod say he settled his wrongful conviction case against the city for a little more than $9 million.
In 1996, Ogrod was convicted in the 1988 killing of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn in Northeast Philadelphia.
A judge eventually overturned the conviction in 2020 after DNA evidence proved Ogrod did not commit the murder. Ogrod was released from a state prison in June 2020.
He sued the city the following year.
Ogrod went to trial twice - the first in 1993 ended in a mistrial and the second in 1996 resulted in his conviction.
Attorneys for the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office argued that Philadelphia Police detectives coerced Ogrod into unreliable testimony and a confession.
The case also made use of an "infamous jailhouse informant who testified for the Commonwealth in many high-profile prosecutions in Philadelphia and surrounding Counties," a petition for Ogrod's release filed in 2020 states.
"In addition to the gross miscarriage of justice committed against Ogrod, Barbara Jean's family and the jury, the Commonwealth recognizes that because the information regarding Barbara Jean's cause of death stayed hidden for decades, the actual perpetrator of the crime has not only escaped prosecution but it is possible the perpetrator has been free to commit other crimes," the document says.
Horn's mother later called for Ogrod's release, according to other court documents.
The DNA found on Horn's body was uploaded to local, state and national databases. There have been no hits since.
