Two found not guilty in Alimohamed murder trial

A jury found Gregory Pennington and Anthony Archer, both 17, not guilty of the murder of fifth-year graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed yesterday afternoon, outraging members of the University community. Pennington was found not guilty of second degree murder and possession of a firearm, but was found guilty of robbery, conspiracy and theft. Archer was found not guilty of first degree murder but was found guilty of robbery, conspiracy to commit a crime, theft and possession of a firearm, according to Mathematics Graduate Chairperson Wolfgang Ziller. Ziller said that while he was "certainly outraged" by the verdict, he does not blame the jury. "The process in Pennsylvania is impossible -- the jury is not allowed to take notes during the trial and they are responsible for remembering everything," he added. Apparently several important statements made by the defendants were suppressed from the jury, according to Ziller. For example, Philadelphia Police Detective Joseph Fischer had testified last month that defendants Ollie Taylor, 18, and Archer were singing a rap song containing explicit lyrics about murder as they waited in the interview room immediately after the arrest. "I got my hammer," they sang. "Bust that muthafucka. We ain't looking for no justice, we got ours." But the defense lawyers motioned to suppress this testimony, and Judge James Fitzgerald ruled in favor of withholding the evidence from the jury, Ziller said. He added that this testimony would have shown that Archer and Taylor had the intent to kill. Ziller also said there was an "even more outrageous statement" in the written affidavit made by Pennington following his arrest that was also never read into the court record. "The jury did the best job they could under the circumstances," Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush said. "We are all disappointed in the ruling, but at least the defendants were made to go through the whole trial process." Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairperson Victor Prince, a second-year Wharton graduate student, said it is a tragedy that Alimohamed's killers will never face justice for his murder. "Hopefully some good has come out of this tragedy as his murder has served as a painful reminder to his graduate student colleagues to never let their guard down against violent crime around campus," he added. Archer and Pennington, as well as the other two defendants, Taylor and Antoine Saunders, 19, will all be sentenced on March 13 by Judge Fitzgerald. Taylor and Saunders accepted an plea bargain two weeks ago, agreeing to release information about the murder to the prosecution in return for not being tried for the death penalty. Both will be given a sentence of life in prison without parole, if District Attorney Roger King finds that they have given sufficient cooperation for a plea bargain. The sentencing for Pennington and Archer will be determined by Judge Fitzgerald. The robbery charge could yield a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years. Conspiracy could yield five to 10 years. Theft may yield two-and-a-half to five years in prison. Possession of a firearm could mean an additional two-and-a-half years. Ziller said Judge Fitzgerald can decide whether these sentences will be served consecutively or concurrent to each other. Both defendants will serve a minimum of 10 years in prison. Archer will serve a maximum of 35 years and Pennington will serve a maximum of 30 years.