Free Man

Emergency responders in Delaware County used a crane to rescue a man trapped under a SEPTA trolley early Saturday. Around 3:30 a.m., the man was struck by a Route 102 Trolley in Clifton Heights along a stretch of tracks near East Broadway and Ogden Street, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. The victim became trapped underneath the trolley, which was approaching the Baltimore Pike Station, heading towards 69th Street Station from Sharon Hill, Busch said. Local rescue crews and SEPTA personnel worked to free the man for about an hour and a half, before the crane was used to lift the trolley off the victim, Busch said.

Larry Peterson took a deep breath after walking out of the Burlington County Jail yesterday, taking his first whiff of freedom in 18 years. He paused and looked around, finding the face he wanted to see on the other side of the media pack that had rushed him. "It feels so good," said Peterson, 54, while bear-hugging his sobbing mother, Susie. "Thank you. " Peterson's conviction for a 1987 rape and murder was overturned last month after DNA tests failed to link him to the crime.

Minutes after a Chester County deputy took the shackles and handcuffs off Dale L. Brison yesterday, the newly freed man embraced his joyful sister and spun her around the courthouse hallway. Convicted of rape and sentenced to 18 to 42 years in prison, Brison spent 3 1/2 years behind bars before he was able to get court-ordered DNA tests and prove what he had been saying from the beginning - he is an innocent man. "Just glad to be out," a subdued Brison said after his release.

The last time she remembers being that happy was the day he was born - all nine pounds, six ounces of him. Her first son. Now here was Myron Moton at 24 years old, walking through the doorway of his aunt's rowhome last Friday night - a free man after spending the last 15 months in jail following an arrest on charges of first-degree murder. Sarah Moton thought her prayers had been answered. "It was just a joyous day," the mother said yesterday. "Everyone was jumping up and down, beating on his head.

A Philadelphia man who escaped from state prison by forging court documents ordering his release was captured Monday, authorities said. U.S. marshals and FBI agents found Kevin William Small, 49, in the 5000 block of Baltimore Avenue. The U.S. Marshals Service said Small had been arrested more than 30 times and had a history of escaping custody dating to the 1970s. Small was in state prison in 2006 when he was charged in federal court with filing false tax returns. During his trial, Small tried to enter forged documents into evidence.

A young Darby Township man, once known by family members as the "quiet, shy one," was sentenced to life in prison without parole yesterday, a month after being convicted of slaying two acquaintances in a bungled drug deal last spring. In sentencing Tyyaken Headen, 24, Delaware County Judge R. Barclay Surrick called the May 31 killings an "unspeakable tragedy. " The victims were shot inside a 1978 Buick underneath the Commodore Barry Bridge in Chester. Before the sentencing, family members of the victims expressed sorrow and outrage.

In a multicultural environment many American citizens will have differences in their individual cultures. But what this country stands for is to set aside our differences and make adjustments in order to unite. It seems that the majority of Americans are not exercising their rights to the fullest. Most Americans don't know all of their rights, which often causes division. Many citizens don't have the slightest idea of the power of individual rights. It is necessary to learn the laws of the land in order to benefit from the rights of the land.

Somewhere along the way we, as American citizens, have lost pride in our armed forces as the sole guardian of our "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. " The only reason for the establishment of this force is to maintain "peace and tranquility within our borders and to repel aggression from without. " If this were a perfect world we could beat our "swords into plowshares," but unfortunately there are forces in this world that are evil by nature and design. On inauguration day, our presidents take the following oath: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States of America and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Dayton Ford Sr. told police that the death of his 3-month-old son last year was an accident. While the 21-year-old father had custody of Dayton Ford Jr., he said he rocked the infant real hard for about an hour to stop him from crying. Yesterday, after a non-jury trial, Common Pleas Judge Lisa A. Richette acquitted Ford Sr., of Rockland Street near 7th in Logan, of the killing. Medical testimony showed that Dayton Jr. had been shaken so severely that his spinal cord was separated from his brain.

Rittenhouse Square singer is acquitted Anthony Riley, jailed for refusing to heed a police officer's demand that he stop singing "A Change Is Gonna Come" in Rittenhouse Square, walked out of court a free man Tuesday. Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons found the 20-year-old not guilty of disorderly conduct, saying: "This is America, not Afghanistan. " Riley faced a three-month sentence for the March 27 incident, which has caused the city to review what sorts of music can be performed throughout Fairmount Park.

BOSTON - Lawyers for a man charged with lying to investigators after the Boston Marathon bombings are asking a federal judge to release him from jail, saying he had nothing to do with the deadly bombings and isn't a flight risk. Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, faces a detention hearing Monday in U.S. District Court. Defense attorneys said in court documents filed Saturday that authorities' claim that Phillipos gave them conflicting accounts is "refutable. " "This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation," lawyers Derege Demissie and Susan Church wrote.

CHICAGO - An American who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India - a punishment that prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators, but that a victim's family member called "an appalling dishonor. " It was David Coleman Headley's meticulous scouting missions that facilitated the assault by 10 gunmen from a Pakistani-based militant group on multiple targets in Mumbai, including the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel.

A Philadelphia man who escaped from state prison by forging court documents ordering his release was captured Monday, authorities said. U.S. marshals and FBI agents found Kevin William Small, 49, in the 5000 block of Baltimore Avenue. The U.S. Marshals Service said Small had been arrested more than 30 times and had a history of escaping custody dating to the 1970s. Small was in state prison in 2006 when he was charged in federal court with filing false tax returns. During his trial, Small tried to enter forged documents into evidence.

Emergency responders in Delaware County used a crane to rescue a man trapped under a SEPTA trolley early Saturday. Around 3:30 a.m., the man was struck by a Route 102 Trolley in Clifton Heights along a stretch of tracks near East Broadway and Ogden Street, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. The victim became trapped underneath the trolley, which was approaching the Baltimore Pike Station, heading towards 69th Street Station from Sharon Hill, Busch said. Local rescue crews and SEPTA personnel worked to free the man for about an hour and a half, before the crane was used to lift the trolley off the victim, Busch said.

The fire burned quickly and ferociously in the early hours of July 29, 1989, nearly consuming the small cabin at a religious retreat in the Poconos. Inside was 20-year-old Ji Yun Lee, dead. Investigators soon concluded that the fire had been set. Han Tak Lee, a Korean American businessman who had taken his daughter there in the hope of finding help for her escalating mental problems, was arrested, tried, and convicted. He is 21 years into a life sentence. Lee has steadfastly professed his innocence.

The refrain "A man ain't nothin' but a man" shows up in several variations of John Henry's legend. It's also the theme of Iron Age Theatre's world premiere of Chris Braak's The Life of John Henry. Maybe you remember Henry as the steel-driving man who heroically outpaced a steam drill. Maybe you remember that he was a free man, former slave, or convict; that he dug through a mountain or laid down track; that he had a pretty wife who stayed true and wore blue, or that she wore blue, but wasn't true.

Monday was Shaddiy Dixon's first day as a free man in almost 17 months, and he traveled home to Atlantic City to spend time with his children and loved ones. Dixon's freedom ended yesterday morning though, when he was shot and killed at a city block party being held to remember a man gunned down there last year. "He had just come back and didn't even make it 24 hours. It's a tragedy and everything is still a little too fresh right now," said Steven Young, president of the South Jersey Chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, the group that promoted the block party.

Robert Venable most likely came to Philadelphia a slave, shipped from Barbados as a little boy and ultimately bought and used by merchant Hugh Donaldson in the late 1740s. But by the time of the Revolutionary War, when Venable moved into a small house at 79 N. Sixth St., he was a free man, manumitted by Donaldson in an act of generosity Venable would never forget. His was a momentous move at a momentous time to an extraordinary part of the city - the block where the National Constitution Center now stands, which two centuries ago buzzed with the birth of free black America.

Rittenhouse Square singer is acquitted Anthony Riley, jailed for refusing to heed a police officer's demand that he stop singing "A Change Is Gonna Come" in Rittenhouse Square, walked out of court a free man Tuesday. Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons found the 20-year-old not guilty of disorderly conduct, saying: "This is America, not Afghanistan. " Riley faced a three-month sentence for the March 27 incident, which has caused the city to review what sorts of music can be performed throughout Fairmount Park.

Larry Peterson is free for now, and that's good. But not good enough. The 54-year-old Burlington County man was released from jail Saturday, finally, after nearly 18 years behind bars for murder. A judge overturned Peterson's conviction after DNA tests showed he's not the man who raped and killed Jacqueline Harrison in Pemberton Township in 1987. Peterson knows that his release on $20,000 bail is due in large part to two important women in his life - his mother, Susie Peterson, and his lawyer, Vanessa Potkin of the Innocence Project.