Braddock man who served 18 years for crime he didn't commit struggled to find his way after release

Drew Whitley spent more than 6,000 days incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit.

Just 33 when he entered Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections in 1989 for the killing of a woman who worked at a McDonald’s restaurant in Duquesne, Whitley was 50 years old by the time DNA evidence cleared him.

He walked out of Allegheny County Jail on May 1, 2006, a free man.

But freedom from the physical constraints of prison wasn’t enough to save Whitley.

“He never quite found his way,” said Bill Moushey, whose Innocence Institute at Point Park University was instrumental in Whitley’s exoneration. “He was a broken human being when he walked out of that prison and could never quite get it together.”

Whitley died Oct. 17 at his home in Braddock. He was 66. Braddock police are investigating, but the death is not believed to be suspicious.

Despite his life circumstances, Whitley’s supporters said, he remained kind and gentle and without hate in his heart.

“Considering what he had gone through, he didn’t seem bitter to me,” said Scott Coffey, the attorney who won Whitley’s post-conviction appeal. “He had a better attitude toward life than most humans have.

“Most people, that would eat you up.”

‘Tragedy compounded on tragedy’

Noreen Malloy had just finished her shift as a manager at a McDonald’s restaurant near Kennywood about 3 a.m. Aug. 17, 1988, when she was shot and killed by a man wearing a nylon mask, hat and woman’s trenchcoat.

Whitley was interviewed that day and charged six months later.

The next year, he was convicted of second-degree murder.

Whitley filed multiple appeals in the case, and finally, in 2006, DNA testing conducted on hairs found in the mask showed that they did not belong to Whitley. Additional DNA testing done on hairs found in the hat at the scene also excluded Whitley.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office ultimately dropped the charges.

No one else has been arrested.

“There’s tragedy compounded on tragedy compounded on tragedy,” said attorney Lawrence Fisher, who filed a lawsuit on Whitley’s behalf in 2007.

When Whitley walked away from the state prison system, he wasn’t even given money for bus fare.

In the years after his release, he was unable to work full-time and was on Social Security Disability. Whitley took on odd jobs but had trouble focusing.

Still, he worked to advocate for a compensation statute to be passed in Pennsylvania for the wrongfully convicted.

Whitley rubbed elbows with judges and legislators, had a book written about him, and Moushey did a podcast.

But none of those things could keep him on track.

“He’s an example of how the system fails people who are wrongfully convicted because there’s no compensation system in Pennsylvania,” Moushey said.

Ultimately, the lawsuit Whitley filed against the detectives who charged him was thrown out by the court because they were protected by qualified immunity.

“It’s a shame he didn’t get a money judgment for what he missed in life and what he was put through because he certainly deserved it,” Coffey said.

Fisher, who went on to write a book about Whitley’s case called “Victim of the System,” said he kept in close contact with him. Fisher said Whitley didn’t talk about his time in prison much.

“There was a certain tranquility he had … living through the atrocities of the state correctional institution for so many years,” Fisher said. “He had a certain peace about it.”

Sometimes, Fisher said, it seemed like Whitley was somewhere else in his mind — remote.

Fisher described Whitley as gentle and kind.

“You might think it would make him ill-tempered, and it didn’t, not in the slightest,” Fisher said.

After the book about Whitley’s case was published, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and his wife, Gisele Barreto-Fetterman, hosted an event for him at their home in Braddock.

The lieutenant governor on Friday called Whitley a caring friend and said his death “is a terrible ending to a tragic story.”

“Drew was horribly failed by the system, and he was, unfortunately, never able to find his way out.”

The struggle for exonerees

Barreto-Fetterman said the couple had known Whitley for several years and supported his continued journey.

“He was truly sweet, and he never let this terrible experience harden him,” she said. “We will miss him deeply and will work hard to honor his spirit in whatever ways we can.”

Fisher said it is expected for someone wrongfully convicted to struggle upon release.

“The biggest struggle he faced was providing for his basic needs: a roof over his head, clothes, food,” he said.

There are just 12 states — including Pennsylvania — that offer no money to those who are exonerated, said Elizabeth DeLosa, the managing attorney for the Pittsburgh office of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.

DeLosa met Whitley once in Harrisburg when he was there to testify about the need for a compensation statute.

“You can spend decades in prison, and, if you were wrongfully convicted, there are no financial resources. There’s no job training, mental health, housing or transportation assistance,” she said. “It’s part of the struggle for exonerees.”

It’s ironic, DeLosa said, because for people who are rightfully convicted are offered a reentry plan with resources for drug and alcohol treatment, housing and job training. They can seek assistance from their probation or parole officers to get guidance in returning to society.

A bill was introduced in the state House this term that would have set compensation for those wrongfully convicted in Pennsylvania at $75,000 for every year served. That figure falls about in the middle of what is offered across the country, DeLosa said.

Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill. The Pennsylvania Innocence Coalition testified that 108 people have been exonerated in Pennsylvania since 1989, the fifth most of any state in the country. They represent 1,394 lost years in prison.

No state in America has as many uncompensated exonerees as there are here, the coalition said.

The bill never made it to a vote.