February 07, 2024
@ExonerationProj/X, formerly Twitter
Harold Staten enjoys his first margarita with his son, Harold DeBose, left, not long after his release from prison. The Court of Common Pleas overturned his 1986 conviction for arson and second-degree murder.
Harold Staten has spent more than half of his life in prison. After serving 38 years of a life sentence for arson and second-degree murder, Staten walked free Monday after new evidence exonerated him.
Staten, 71, was convicted of starting a house fire at 3011 N. Percy St. in North Philadelphia in 1984. The blaze forced four residents to jump from the building's second-story windows, killing one of them.
Staten maintained his innocence throughout his trial and during his imprisonment. On Monday, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found that Staten's conviction was based on faulty science and contradictory witness statements, including one from a 17-year-old girl who was intoxicated, 6ABC reported.
New evidence led the court to vacate his conviction. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project and attorney Cozen O'Connor represented Staten, and cited advances in fire science.
PAIP welcomes home our first client of 2024, Harold Staten. Yesterday evening, Harold walked free from the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Phoenix after being wrongfully incarcerated for nearly four decades.
— PA Innocence Project (@innocencepa) February 6, 2024
Welcome home, Harold🎉 pic.twitter.com/gfRFVsnVqy
The 1984 investigation concluded that the fire was intentionally set based on visual observations of the damage and fire patterns. Though laboratory testing did not show any accelerants in the floorboards, prosecutors argued that Staten, then an exterminator, had set the fire after a dispute with one of the building's residents over a missing can of roach spray.
Over the decades, Staten persistently sought to have his case reconsidered. The District Attorney's Office's Conviction Integrity Unit investigated the matter in 2022 and found evidence that called the initial conviction under question. Key to the CIU's findings was the 2021 edition of NFPA 921, the National Fire Protection Association's "Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations."
According to the guide, which incorporated modern information on fire patterns, "when an accurate area of origin cannot be determined, no cause (accidental or arson) determination can be made."
These updated standards in fire science, along with discrepancies in witness testimonies from the initial investigation, led the Court of Common Pleas to conclude that it could not be determined whether Staten intentionally set the building on fire – or if an arson was committed at all.
Released from prison on Monday morning, Staten enjoyed his first margarita with his son, Harold DeBose. Though Staten will never get those 38 years back, he now will be able to spend time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the first time.
