Cop told man he knew he was innocent but helped send him to prison in PA, suit says
.png "Tyree Wallace is suing the city of Philadelphia after spending 26 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit.")
A Pennsylvania man is suing after he says he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In October 1999, 21 year-old Tyree Wallace was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Young Su Kang, according to a federal lawsuit filed April 7.
At a post-conviction hearing, Wallace testified that one of the detectives told him he knew he was innocent but “did not care that Wallace was going to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit lists the city of Philadelphia and several detectives as defendants.
McClatchy News reached out to the city of Philadelphia for comment April 10 but city officials declined to comment.
At about 11 p.m. Oct. 27, 1997, Kang was shot three times during a robbery outside a store he owned in Philadelphia, the civil complaint said. The next morning, he was pronounced dead, according to the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, three men were coerced to testify against Wallace in the case, which had no physical evidence tying Wallace to the crime.
One man was facing more than 100 years in prison in connection with several robberies, the lawsuit said. In exchange for his testimony, the man was given a five- to 10-year sentence, the complaint said.
Wallace’s attorney, Joseph M. Marrone, said in the lawsuit that the man was approached by authorities in 1997 and asked to provide information on the fatal robbery of Kang. But he told them he didn’t know about it. Then, in early 1998, after the man was accused of committing another robbery and facing more prison time, he was approached again and this time gave authorities a detailed story, according to the suit.
The man told authorities that he, Wallace and another man planned to rob Kang’s store but that Wallace and the other man carried out the robbery and shooting on their own, the lawsuit said.
Wallace was arrested four days later, the complaint said.
At Wallace’s 1999 trial, the man testified against Wallace. However, just moments after stepping off the stand, the man told a sheriff that he lied in his testimony and he “wanted to talk to somebody in the courtroom and let them know that everything he had just testified to was a lie,” according to the lawsuit.
The man took the stand again and testified that in December 1997 when he spoke to detectives, he was told he and his brother were “going down” in connection with the fatal robbery and was given the impression that he had to give them information or he would be going to prison for life, the lawsuit said.
“It was my firm belief then and still is today that (the man) lied on the stand and that the reversal of his statement was the authentic truth,” the sheriff said in an October 2023 affidavit, according to the complaint.
Another man who worked at the convenience store testified that Wallace fit the description of a man who came into the store the night of the shooting, the lawsuit said.
However, in 2017, he came forward with a certification “explaining how he had been subject to intimidation and coercion by police to falsely testify against Mr. Wallace,” the complaint said.
In February 1998, police “harassed” a 16-year-old and brought him in for questioning, the complaint said. The teen said he was with Wallace the day of the incident and witnessed Wallace planning the robbery and fleeing the scene of the shooting, the lawsuit said.
However, a friend who was with the teen that day contradicted his statement, saying Wallace was not with them the day of the robbery and shooting, according to the lawsuit.
“I want to go on record to establish, without question, that Tyree Wallace was not involved in the planning of the robbery that led to the murder and, to the best of my knowledge, had no involvement in the robbery or murder,” the friend said, according to the complaint.
Along with Wallace, Raheem Shackleford, who was a juvenile at the time, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in the case. He was then re-sentenced and released from prison in 2018, the lawsuit said.
Shackleford has gone on record saying that Wallace was not involved in the crime, according to the complaint.
On June 12, 2024, after “Mr. Wallace’s innocence came to light years later,” his convictions of second-degree murder, robbery, conspiracy and possession of a criminal instrument were overturned, and his life sentence was vacated, the lawsuit said. The judge then ordered a new trial.
“The Commonwealth was unwilling to recommend a full exoneration, and offered only to recommend an exoneration of the original second-degree murder conviction in exchange for a plea to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the third degree,” the lawsuit said.
Wallace was told “this is the best you’re going to get,” the lawsuit said. He accepted the plea deal and was sentenced to 12 to 24 years in prison with time served and was released Nov. 4, according to the complaint.
“Being innocent does not mean you get out of prison. Period,” Wallace told WCAU. “You have to find a technicality. A loophole. A reason why you didn’t get a fair trial. So I understand that I was faced with that. And I had to do what I had to do in order not to die in prison.”
The lawsuit is asking for an undetermined amount in damages.
This story was originally published April 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Cop told man he knew he was innocent but helped send him to prison in PA, suit says."
