Blank Rome is pleased to share that our pro bono client, Tyree Wallace, has been released from prison after serving nearly 27 years following a wrongful conviction. On November 4, 2024, he regained his freedom.
In 1997, the tragic robbery, shooting, and murder of beloved deli owner, Jhon Su Kang, shocked the Philadelphia community. Two years later, Mr. Wallace, then only 19 years old, was wrongfully accused and convicted of second-degree felony murder for the crime. Mr. Wallace was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, the penalty for such a crime in Pennsylvania.
Blank Rome was initially introduced to Mr. Wallace in 2019 when the Pennsylvania Innocence Project directed him to the firm for assistance with copyright and trademark issues related to a flourishing self-help program he had established to mentor other prisoners, called MANN Up. This is when David M. Perry, a partner at Blank Rome and co-chair of the firm's Intellectual Property & Technology practice, first met Mr. Wallace. Dave resolved the intellectual property issues, but he did not stop there.
Dave was impressed by Mr. Wallace, especially how he was working to generate positive change. In addition to MANN Up, which Mr. Wallace formed into a 501(c)(3) organization with Blank Rome’s support, Mr. Wallace went on to establish another nonprofit called Systemic Reformative Change (“SRC”), to which he plans to dedicate his fulltime energy and passion. Through SRC, even while incarcerated, he has already helped to coordinate donation drives benefitting kids in need and under-resourced public schools. Mr. Wallace also worked to eliminate racial and ethnic divisions within the inmate population, and he personally volunteered to help the nursing staff care for terminally ill prisoners in hospice.
As the pandemic set in and MANN Up work slowed, Dave dug deeper into the circumstances that led to the life sentence and worked tenaciously to find arguments to prove that Mr. Wallace had not been involved in the crime, focusing on witnesses who had recanted, testimonials of Mr. Wallace’s innocence, and potential Brady violations in the case. At the same time, Dave partnered with the former head of the Defenders’ Association, Keir Bradford-Grey, now head of Marrone Law Firm’s Civil Rights Litigation Department, who enthusiastically joined Mr. Wallace’s legal team. Together, the team drafted and filed in 2023 a new post-conviction petition—in fact, his seventh over the course of his incarceration. On June 10, 2024, Judge Scott DiClaudio vacated Mr. Wallace’s life sentence and agreed to a plea deal, paving the way for Mr. Wallace’s release this week and his new lease on life outside the prison walls that confined him for so long.
“We are ecstatic to see Tyree gain his freedom and be given a second chance, a chance he will now put to use helping others in need, from children, to the homeless, to those still incarcerated,” said Dave. “We are grateful to The Pennsylvania Innocence Project for connecting us with Tyree five years ago, and proud that what started as an intellectual property matter became the catalyst for his eventual release from prison. Tyree’s story not only illustrates the importance of pro bono work, a core value of Blank Rome, but shows that we are extremely fortunate to have a platform that we can use to genuinely improve the trajectory of a person’s life—in particular, someone wrongfully convicted.”
In addition to Dave, the Blank Rome team supporting Mr. Wallace in his fight for justice includes associates Christopher Cody Wilcoxson and Scarlett L. Montenegro Ordoñez, former associate Fatema Ghasletwala, and former summer associate Lauryn Coleman. Incredible nonprofit counseling has been provided by partner Scott E. Thomas and of counsel Jennifer L. Carrier, whose work provided Mr. Wallace with a constant and critical source of hope and purpose.
