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Man free after 37 years due to ‘sex for lies’ false witness

Man free after 37 years due to ‘sex for lies’ false witness Willie Stokes walks from a state prison in Chester, Pa., on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022, after his 1984 murder conviction was overturned because of perjured witness testimony. Stokes was serving a life sentence and spent decades in prison before learning the witness who testified against him at a 1984 court hearing soon pleaded guilty to perjury over the testimony. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Matt Rourke/AP)

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia man has been freed from prison after 37 years in a case tarnished by detectives who allegedly offered a witness sex and drugs at police headquarters in exchange for false testimony.

The trial witness was charged with perjury days after Willie Stokes was convicted of murder in 1984.

But Stokes was never told of that perjury plea until 2015 while serving a life sentence.

Stokes, now 61, walked out of a state prison near Philadelphia on Tuesday eager to hug his mother and get a corned beef hoagie.

A federal judge has called the violation of his constitutional rights “egregious.”

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