Dawud Turner: Pennsylvania Innocence Project

Thirty-eight years and 10 months. That’s how long Dawud Turner spent in prison for a crime he did not commit.

In December 2025, Dawud walked free, thanks to the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, the Exoneration Project, and Ballard Spahr Litigation Partner Thomas W. Hazlett, who worked pro bono on Dawud’s case.

Tom has volunteered his time working with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project since July 2015.

“It’s a group that does important work and has built up credibility by only pursuing the most meritorious cases,” he said. “The quality of their work is excellent, and the local prosecutors trust them.”

Tom often called on his undergraduate degree in biology to work on Pennsylvania Innocence Project cases where a scientific concept, like DNA analysis, was at issue. He came to work on Dawud’s case because, at first, DNA analysis seemed like it could be pivotal. Dawud had been convicted of a February 1987 murder to which no physical evidence linked him, and that conviction hinged on unreliable witness testimony and investigative work by authorities that had later fallen under suspicion.

Although, given the age of the evidence, further analysis of the DNA evidence did not yield any results, “as we went along, as we went through files and records that the D.A.’s Office made available for the first time for review, we saw several pieces of evidence that had not been presented to the defense at the time of his trial and were exculpatory,” Tom said. “It was thrilling. You’re going through these images of these papers that have been sitting in a file and had been suppressed, and some of it was really glaring stuff. More and more, it became clear:  Dawud should not be in prison and our team had a promising route to pursue his release.”

Tom and other legal team members from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and the Exoneration Project met with Dawud, both face-to-face and via phone, every few months as his case progressed.

“Right up to the day before he was released, he was notably patient,” Tom said. “He was optimistic. He was excited and he knew that us having found those documents that had been suppressed was a significant development, but there was never a time when, with us, he was anything less than reasonably confident, patient, and grateful.”

Even as Dawud’s case progressed, he never considered a plea bargain or deal for time served: “I thought it was so interesting that, after all these years, he stood by his belief that he was innocent and that he was going to have his name cleared,” Tom said.

On Wednesday, December 10, 2025, the Court ruled on Dawud’s petition for post-conviction relief and overturned his conviction. The next morning, Thursday, December 11, Tom and the rest of Dawud’s legal team set up in the café area of a Wegmans grocery store near where Dawud was being held. It was there that they received news that he was in the process of being released from custody. When the time came late that afternoon, Dawud was welcomed outside the prison by his niece, a close friend, and his legal team—and celebrated by having a cheese hoagie.

Now, Dawud, who is 68, is working with a social worker from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project on getting a driver’s license, applying for Social Security benefits, and rejoining society after decades of imprisonment. And Tom is reflecting on a powerful experience.

“I’ve internalized that pro bono is part of doing this job. I’ve always had that view,” he said. “The way the firm supports pro bono is one of the reasons I wanted to come here. It was that important to me. This is part of what Ballard lawyers do; this is part of what our practices are like.”

Numerous other Ballard Spahr attorneys volunteer with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. “They’ve been a great partner to us, and I’m really proud of the work our firm does with them,” Tom said.