A South Philadelphia man who was wrongfully convicted in a 2011 shooting — leading to him spending more than a decade in prison — has filed a lawsuit against the city and seven police officers claiming his case fits a long pattern of the department's misconduct in criminal investigation.
C.J. Rice's case garnered national attention in recent years because of his friendship with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who advocated on Rice's behalf and reported about his plight in a story for the Atlantic. Tapper, who grew up in Philadelphia, helped bring light to the holes in the investigation and the failures of the legal system that led to Rice's conviction.
MORE: Drexel administrator charged for alleged drunken confrontation with police inside SEPTA station
A federal court vacated the conviction and sentence last year, allowing Rice, 30, to walk free. A court hearing in March determined that he will not be retried in the case.
Rice was 17 years old when he was charged with attempted murder in a quadruple shooting in Point Breeze. Two gunmen had opened fire on a group of people sitting outside a home. One of the men who was struck had been tied to gang violence and three of his family members were also injured.
Weeks earlier, Rice had been shot while riding his bike in South Philly. Tapper's father, Theodore, was the pediatrician who treated Rice's wounds after he had surgery. He didn't think Rice was physically capable of committing the crime based on the way police described the shooting, and Rice had been recovering at his grandmother's home in West Philadelphia at the time of the shooting.
Rice's lawsuit alleges Philadelphia police relied on questionable testimony and evidence to pin the crime on him and portray it as an act of retaliation. The suit contends police "fabricated false reports and false evidence" and "committed deliberate deception" in their efforts to close the case. Rice was one of two people charged in the shooting. The other man was acquitted at his trial in 2013.
“No one can give Mr. Rice back the years he lost, and nothing can repay him for the physical and emotional distress he has been through,” Rice's attorney, Gayle Horn of the civil rights firm Loevy + Loevy, said in a statement. “But police misconduct has run rampant in Philadelphia for far too long, and the City must be held responsible for the illegal and unethical actions of its officers.”
The lawsuit cites dozens of wrongful convictions in Philadelphia that Rice's attorneys said are indicative of a police department that has not addressed its flaws or been disciplined for its mistakes. Since 2016, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office reports at least 49 people have been exonerated of crimes committed in the city. The Conviction Integrity Unit in DA Larry Krasner's office has revisited and overturned most of those cases, often on grounds related to faulty evidence gathering and investigative methods.
The suit seeks a jury ruling to provide damages for violations of Rice's constitutional rights. The city and the police department declined to comment.
Since his release from prison, Rice has begun studying law. Tapper supported a crowdfunding campaign sponsored by the nonprofit Dream.org that has raised more than $118,000 to help Rice rebuild his life.
