Scoop: Philly man spent 40 years in prison. Now he's suing saying police framed him.

A Philadelphia man who was freed from prison last year is suing the city and police, alleging detectives used unreliable forensics and a questionable informant to obtain a wrongful conviction.

The big picture: Mark Young, 69, is among dozens of people whose convictions have been overturned in Philadelphia since 2018, per the federal lawsuit he filed this month.

• Many of the convictions were overturned because of allegations of police misconduct, and Philadelphia has paid millions to settle some of those cases, some of which date back decades.

Driving the news: Young — who spent more than four decades in prison for the 1974 murder in a bar of Walter Palmero — is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and punitive action against the officers.

The other side: The city declined to comment, and Young's attorney didn't respond to Axios' requests for comment.

Between the lines: Young says he falsely confessed after being interrogated by police for 15 hours, during which he was denied access to an attorney and food and water and was physically assaulted by one of the detectives, per the lawsuit.

• Police also used a "pseudo-scientific" microscopic hair test that the FBI later said was unreliable, and used "highly suggestive" tactics to pressure witnesses into identifying Young in the 1974 Place Bar robbery — including threatening to charge a bar worker for serving 19-year-old Palmero unless she named Young, per the lawsuit.

Context: A 1977 Inquirer investigation found homicide detectives had routinely beaten, threatened, intimidated, coerced and disregarded suspects' constitutional rights during interrogations.

• One former homicide detective told the Inquirer the department provided little training to police officers, many of whom carried heavy caseloads and were given a simple mandate: "Solve the case."

Catch up quick: Two men held up the West Oak Lane bar in September 1974, stealing more than $100 and a bottle of alcohol. Palmero was shot in the back during the holdup, prosecutors said.

• Young, then 18, had enlisted in the Army and was at a New Jersey military base for basic training when detectives arrested him for the crime.
• After his initial trial ended with a hung jury, Young was convicted of murder, robbery and conspiracy during a second trial in 1975 and received a life sentence.
• The shooter, Charles Sheppard, who had evaded police for several years, was convicted of Palmero's murder in 1979, per court records.
• In 2008, Sheppard gave a sworn statement exonerating Young, saying they had never committed robberies together.

The latest: A judge overturned Young's conviction in 2024, and Young accepted a plea deal to admit to third-degree murder to avoid another trial. He was released from prison three months later.

Zoom in: The lawsuit centers on a longtime police informant known as "Turtle," whom a witness had identified early on as one of the men who robbed the bar.

• Police "did not charge him with the crime" because he had cooperated with them in the past to avoid charges or to have other cases dropped, per the lawsuit.

What they're saying: The detectives "knew they could hold this over [the informant's] head to manipulate him to implicate any suspect they wanted in this case," Young's lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Flashback: The informant visited Young's house days after the murder under the guise of borrowing a shirt, per the complaint. He later told detectives that Young had confessed to robbing the bar during that visit.

• The detectives showed the informant's statement to Young during their interrogation.
• Later, the informant was arrested on unrelated sexual assault charges. While he and Young were locked up together, he admitted setting up Young and promised to "make it right" by testifying at Young's trial.

Yes, but: The informant "never showed up at trial or made anything 'right'" for Young, per the lawsuit.