Time in Prison
Spel has spent 34 years incarcerated at SCI Graterford and SCI Dallas in the state of Pennsylvania serving Life Without Parole. While at SCI Graterford, he was a core member of the lauded Philadelphia Mural Arts team who were documented in the film, “Concrete, Steel, and Paint”, the complex story of an arts program that brought together a group of incarcerated men with victims of crime and victim advocates. Despite subsequently being transferred to a prison without a rehabilitative arts program, Spel remains resilient, resourceful, and upbeat, painting in his cell bunk using his knees as an easel, with limited supplies and found material, such as coffee and toilet tissue wrappers.
Arrest
At 5:00 am on June 30, 1990, Martin Brill, a man in the Rittenhouse Square area of Philadelphia, asked a stranger, Levi Davis, where he could find drugs. Davis got in Brill’s car and they drove to North Philadelphia, where Brill approached Adam Colon, a street friend of Spel’s. Brill and Colon struggled over the deal; Colon fatally shot Brill. At the time of this incident, Spel was in Colon’s mother’s apartment with a female acquaintance.
Investigation
In all witness sworn statements taken by the police, including key eyewitness, Levi Davis, who observed the incident from Brill’s vehicle, there were only 2 people seen on the street at the time of the shooting: the shooter (identified as Adam Colon), and a witness identified as Victor Ruffin, who was standing diagonally opposite the street intersection.
The witness Ruffin’s initial sworn statement said he was home with his mother in the early morning of the shooting at 5:30am. After Colon’s arrest one week later, Ruffin changed his sworn statement, saying he was on the street and saw Spel yelling to the shooter: “ Shoot! Shoot!” Ruffin received blanket immunity in exchange for testifying against Spel. In the years since, Ruffin has admitted to perjury and falsely implicating Spel, but was advised against signing an Affidavit by his attorney. Spel was convicted solely on Ruffin’s accusation. None of 7 other witnesses were called to trial.
On September 24, 1990, arraignment Judge William J. Manfredi ordered that a lineup be conducted on Spel's behalf in front of key eyewitness, Levi Davis. Records show that Spel followed up on this order by mailing a certified letter to his attorney, urging that a lineup be arranged as soon as possible. Prosecutor Roger King and Spel’s court-appointed attorney, Jeffrey Kolansky, ignored the order and a lineup never occurred. It would have demonstrated that Spel did not meet any of the visual descriptions given by Levi Davis of those who were present at the crime.
Trial and Conviction
Spel’s 1-day waiver trial (non-jury trial with a judge only) was held before Judge Carolyn Engel Temin on January 7, 1992. Attorney Jeffrey Kolansky advised Spel against a jury; he also counseled him to be tried as co-defendant with the alleged shooter to avoid the death penalty. Consequently, Spel’s sentence was tied to the sentence the shooter received. Spel was convicted of second degree murder, robbery, criminal conspiracy, and possession of an instrument of a crime, and was sentenced on November 16, 1992 to Life Without Parole on the homicide charge, and a consecutive term of 5-20 years for conspiracy. At the time of Spel’s trial, Attorney Kolansky had recently left a 12-year position as a prosecutor for the same District Attorney's Office of Philadelphia, to engage in private practice. His practice included representation of the Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P.) and its members, a clear conflict of interest.
After Spel’s January 7, 1992 conviction, he filed post-verdict motions alleging that the evidence was insufficient and his counsel ineffective. Three hearings were held on November 6, 9, and 16, 1992. Colon retracted his prior accusation of Spel and testified that Spel was not at the scene of the crime and had nothing to do with Brill’s murder. He stated that his initial implication of Spel stemmed from the police telling him that Spel had snitched on him. Colon also testified that he wanted to come clean about falsely implicating Spel on the day of the trial but was dissuaded by his attorney, Marlene Cooperman. Cooperman testified that Colon had indeed told her about Spel’s innocence but she advised him against taking the stand in order to try and get Colon a lesser sentence. Spel’s Attorney Jeffrey Kolansky testified that he did not even begin to investigate Spel’s case until ten months after his appointment to the case because of his belief that there was nothing to investigate. All post-verdict motions were denied.
In Spel’s case, the suppression of evidence is prosecutorial misconduct of constitutional dimension and encompasses both Brady and Giglio violations. As of June 2021, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office has exonerated 21 people whose convictions were based upon prosecutorial and police misconduct. Spel’s case aligns with this misconduct and he deserves exoneration.
PA Innocence Project
Spel and his supporters filed numerous appeals (both State and Federal) post-conviction that were denied. PA Innocence accepted representation of Spel’s case in 2009. In 2012, PA Innocence obtained new evidence and filed a PCRA (Post Conviction Relief Act) Petition for Spel through the Conviction Review Unit under DA Seth Williams. It was held up in court for 5 years and ultimately dismissed by prosecution as “untimely”. PA Innocence appealed to PA Superior Court and was denied once more. Exhaustive efforts have gone into finding new evidence not available at the time of Spel’s trial, but chronic underfunding and an overburdened office have made an ongoing re-investigation of the case challenging. Key witnesses have died over the past three decades during this protracted process.