Courier Times

Former inmates tour to denounce death penalty

Once they were dead men walking, now they are free and they'll be talking at the George School on Sunday - about the death penalty and shortcomings in a justice system that wrongly sent them to death row.

By JO CIAVAGLIA

A regular guy, that was Ray Krone.

He delivered mail in Arizona, where he moved after serving in the U.S. Air Force. Muscle cars were his passion, especially his rebuilt '74 Corvette. At 35, he was a first-time homeowner. He hung out at a neighborhood bar, playing darts and shooting pool.

 Then a bartender at that Phoenix tavern turned up dead just before New Year's Eve 1991. She was repeatedly stabbed and sexually assaulted. The killer left a bite mark on her breast.

 Two days later, the former Pennsylvania man, who never so much as had a detention in high school, was arrested and charged with killing her.

 Less than a year later, Krone went on trial. Prosecutors argued that the bite mark on the woman matched his teeth. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sent him to death row.

 End of story. At least it would have been.

 Only Krone didn't kill her.

 More than 10 years passed before scientific advances irrefutably proved that he was innocent. Now six months after being released, Krone tells his story.

 On Sunday night, Krone and Philadelphia resident William Nieves, who spent seven years on Pennsylvania's death row before being exonerated and released in 2000, will appear at the George School campus in Middletown. The visit is one of many stops on a two-week speaking tour, "From Death Row to Freedom: Voices of Innocence," that kicked off earlier this week.

 The men are traveling across the state speaking out against the death penalty and calling on Gov. Mark Schweiker to impose an immediate moratorium on executions as governors in Illinois and Maryland have done.

 For years, legislation seeking a death penalty moratorium has floated around the state Assembly, said Kurt Rosenberg, tour coordinator for the Pennsylvania Abolitionist United Against the Death Penalty, the group sponsoring the tour.

 Since the death penalty resumed in 1977, four Pennsylvania death row inmates have been exonerated and freed - more than the state has executed in that time, Rosenberg said.

 "If it could happen to me. It could happen to anyone," said Krone in a phone interview earlier this week.

 The former church choirboy and Boy Scout could hardly believe what happened to him back in 1991.

 Almost immediately, police fingered Krone as a prime suspect in the murder. His name came up among bar customers who police talked to, he said. Somehow it got around that Krone was the bartender's boyfriend.

When police questioned him, Krone repeatedly denied he dated her, told them he hardly knew her - didn't even know her last name. Krone said he went to bed early the night of the murder and a roommate confirmed the alibi.

Since he had nothing to hide, Krone voluntarily went to police headquarters, where he was examined for scratch marks and asked to bite into a Styrofoam cup.

 The bite mark would become the prosecution's key piece of evidence with an expert testifying it likely belonged to Krone. While in the Air Force, Krone broke his jaw in a car accident and had caps and bridgework done that left his teeth crooked.

 Krone had decided not to hire a lawyer after one told him a good defense would cost $80,000 to $100,000. He couldn't afford it, so he relied on a public defender. He wasn't worried, he told his family - after all he was innocent, the system couldn't convict him.

 After his first trial, Krone sat on death row for two years. In 1996, he was retried. This time Krone says he had a good lawyer, his own DNA, fingerprint and bite experts, and new witnesses. The trial lasted six weeks as opposed to his first eight-day trial.

 He was convicted again. Only this time the judge found the evidence was weak and commuted Krone's death sentence to life in prison.

 More appeals followed. Frustration was setting in. Legal bills footed by Krone's second cousin were mounting - more than $100,000. His family spent their retirement savings and took out second mortgages, never giving up.

 Then last October, Krone's lawyer convinced an appeals court that DNA evidence found on the victim pointed to another man. The man's fingerprints were also found at the murder scene.

 When DNA test results came back in March, it proved Krone was no killer. The DNA belonged to a convicted sex offender serving time for a different crime. That man has since been arrested and charged with the 1991 murder.

 In April, Krone became the 100th person in the United States set free from death row since 1973.

 As soon as he could, Krone moved back to Pennsylvania. He lives in a garage apartment on his parents' property that's furnished with donated furniture. He earns money from odd jobs and speaking engagements. Someday he'd like to go back to college, but he'll need a loan.

 He's 45 now and lost almost everything - his home, furniture, his post office job, his life savings.

 But he has his freedom, his family and the prison Bible he read three times.

 He also still has that old Corvette. His family kept it in storage all those years.

 Whatever he does, Krone wants to stay involved in the criminal justice system, maybe counsel young people. He will continue telling his story of how the U.S. justice system failed him.

 He believes the United States needs to do something to improve the death penalty system to make things fairer. People facing the death penalty should have greater access to DNA evidence and states should provide competent legal counsel in capital punishment cases.

 There are other innocent people in prison and on death row, Krone believes.

 While working in the prison law library, he heard inmate stories that sound similar to his. Since his April release, two more ex-death row inmates have been exonerated and freed, he added.

 "I know I'm not the only one. I know what was done against me," he said. "People in prison don't say they're innocent. Me walking around saying, 'I'm innocent' is only going to get my butt kicked."

 IF YOU GO

From Death Row to Freedom: Voices of Innocence, featuring Pennsylvania residents Ray Krone and William Nieves, two former death row inmates freed after being exonerated for crimes they didn't commit, will share their experiences and speak about the death penalty system at the George School meeting house on Sunday night.

 The program begins at 7:30 a.m. It is free and open to the public. George School is on Route 413 in Middletown. The program is sponsored by the Bucks County Committee Against the Death Penalty.

Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at 215-949-4181 or [email protected].