This is Part 3 of Losing Conviction , a series about homicide investigations in Philadelphia. It was and Franklin Lee was locked up at a Philadelphia jail awaiting trial for serious crimes, including a rape he admits to and a murder he denies any part in. Lee made a desperate decision — one with consequences he says he is still trying to atone for today. It started, he said, when homicide detectives Ernest Gilbert and Larry Gerrard sent a wagon to bring him down to the Police Administration Building.
They came in with four or five files. They asked him about a neighborhood man, Willie Stokes: Did Lee know anything about Stokes shooting up a dice game four years earlier and killing a man named Leslie Campbell? As Lee would later testify, the detectives instructed him to fabricate a statement claiming Stokes bragged about the murder.
In return, he said they offered a lenient sentence — and an unusual way to make his jail stay more enjoyable. The deal, according to Lee: regular visits to the Police Administration Building, known as the Roundhouse, where Lee could have sex in interview rooms. The women could freely bring drugs and money, he said. And when his girlfriend soured on the unseemly setup, a detective brought in a sex worker, he said.
While police, prosecutors, and judges have found such claims incredible, new admissions from informants obtained by The Inquirer describe a pattern of misconduct in the Homicide Unit in that era. They trace that through line from the s, when confessions were sometimes obtained using violent interrogation tactics, up to the s, when dozens were convicted based on work by Detective Philip Nordo, who is now charged with raping suspects and manipulating investigations.
A spokesperson said the office could not comment on the cases, because they either had pending petitions or were not under review. Nothing but dirt and metal chairs in those rooms. The girlfriend of a known informant — Anthony Singleton, who had given statements about Stokes and others — testified about the trysts. The prosecutor asked if perhaps instead she had merely brought in a dinner for Singleton.
