A newly elected prosecutor has dropped an old shoplifting charge that complicated the release of a Philadelphia man granted clemency from a life sentence.
The case had become a political football among rival prosecutors as the nation debates criminal justice reform.
The state clemency board had voted unanimously to release David Sheppard after he served 27 years for his role in a fatal store robbery. But his expected release last month was held up when a suburban Philadelphia prosecutor filed a detainer over the 1992 shoplifting charge… Star Tribune