[The Boston Globe]
[The Boston Globe]

     SJC overturns murder conviction despite fingerprint evidence: Time it
     was made is key, court says

     By Zachary R. Dowdy, Globe Staff, 03/13/96

     Although the suspect's thumbprint was found at the scene of the crime
     in a Malden apartment, the state Supreme Judicial Court yesterday
     overturned his murder conviction because prosecutors could not prove
     his print was placed there at the time of the murder.

     The high court's unanimous opinion reversed a Middlesex Superior Court
     jury's verdict that found Phillip Morris Jr. guilty in the killing of
     David Morley during an armed invasion of an alleged crack house on
     Clark Street in Malden on Nov. 15, 1991.

     Morris allegedly was one of five armed and masked men who charged into
     the third-floor apartment and fired guns at Morley. Appeals by two
     brothers, Whittaker White and Kenneth White, who were also convicted
     of first-degree murder in the case in a separate trial, are pending
     before the SJC.

     A clown mask worn by one of the intruders was found at the scene, and
     Morris' right thumbprint was on it. But in a 9-page opinion written by
     Judge Herbert P. Wilkins, the court found that the evidence was
     insufficient to place Morris at the scene at the time of the crime.

     A fingerprint expert testified he could not determine when the
     fingerprint was placed on the mask.

     The other evidence presented by the prosecution - the fact that
     Morris' mother owned a car resembling the one that a witness said was
     used by men who left the scene after gunshots rang out, Morris'
     resemblance to a description of a man that a witness said was one of
     the intruders, and telephone calls made to the defendant's home by
     Kenneth White after he was booked - were only circumstantial and did
     not place Morris at the crime scene.

     ``The jury could have reasonably inferred that the defendant had been
     involved with the White brothers and that he might have been one of
     the intruders,'' Wilkins wrote. ``The evidence does not, however,
     warrant such a conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant's
     association with the White brothers, standing alone, falls short of
     warranting such a finding.''

     The court added that the White brothers may have been using Morris'
     home as a base for operations.

     This story ran on page 31 of the Boston Globe on 03/13/96.

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