Former Philadelphia homicide Detective James Pitts is charged with two counts of felony perjury for allegedly lying under oath during a 2013 murder trial,.
Updated: 12:20 PM EDT May 24, 2021 By SAMANTHA MELAMED, The Philadelphia Inquirer The first time Derrick Spivey learned about Bradying was at his own preliminary hearing, facing a charge of first-degree murder.The sole witness at the 2009 hearing was a former high school classmate of Spivey s who, a year earlier, had signed a statement that Spivey fatally shot Marvin Hudson, 21. Now that witness, Rahman Rock Isaac, testified that his statement was a fabrication by detectives, one that he d signed under duress. In fact, he testified, he had ducked for cover and did not see who shot Hudson.Still, based on the disputed statement, a Municipal Court judge ruled the prosecutor had made out a strong enough case to take it to trial.Such a ruling was possible because of a 1986 Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, Commonwealth v. Brady. That landmark case placed Pennsylvania among a minority of states that allowed prior inconsistent statements to be presented as substantive