During the African-American Elmer Daniels’ talk at a forum about his brutal life sentence and wrongful conviction over an alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl, Attorney Emeka Igwe was present in the audience. The gravity of Daniels’ case would lead Igwe to dedicate his time and skill in battling his case on a pro bono basis which eventually led to his client’s freedom in 2018.
Igwe in 2005 graduated from Widener University School of Law. He furthered his academic pursuit to receive his LLM (Masters of Law) in Trial Advocacy at Temple University Beasley School of Law (2007). He then started his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the City of Philadelphia. As an ADA, he prosecuted major felony cases spanning through rape, attempted murder, robbery, burglary, possession with the intent to deliver, and gun possession. Also, he handled misdemeanor cases such as drug possession, DUI, and theft.
Before delving to into the legal field to attend Widener, Igwe, a Nigerian descent graduated from the University of Delaware in 2002, where he majored in English with a study in Business and Technical Writing. He was also a member of the Delaware Student African Association as well as a member of the University of Delaware Track Team.
After leaving the District Attorney’s office, Attorney Igwe worked at Allstate Insurance Company quickly establishing his reputation as a premier trial attorney who never lost a jury trial case. Several of his winning verdicts are in the Verdict Search Magazine.
Meanwhile, few years ago, Igwe began working pro bono to get Daniels discharged and acquitted. On May 22, 1980, Daniels was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of the 15-year-old white girl named G.S., despite several witnesses, including his mother’s testament that he was playing basketball at a community center when the assault occurred.
Despite Daniels’ protest and plead for not guilty, he spent 39 years behind bars before being paroled from the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution prison on December 13, 2018. Although his earlier appeals were unsuccessful, Daniels’ magical voice was attorney Igwe who rightfully said: “Without my involvement, Elmer would have died in jail.”
According to an account, in 2017, “Daniels hired a new lawyer, Emeka Igwe, who reviewed the case and contended that evidence suggesting his client’s innocence never saw the light of day — that included fingerprints that did not match Daniels’, and a psychiatrist’s testimony that the victim’s description of the assailant did not match Daniels’ appearance. A teenaged witness also provided false testimony that he and Daniels were in the same class, but Igwe found not only were the boys in different grades, but attended different schools.”
Igwe made it clear it was his legal team which initiated the work to get Daniels out of prison, an impressive feat state prosecutors cannot take credit for despite their attempt.
“The attorney general wasn’t going to look at his case or review his case. They want to act like they were benevolent and cared that he already served 39 years … but he (the attorney general) only did what he did because they were forced to,” Igwe stressed.
As he left prison, Daniels acknowledged Igwe’s efforts for helping him get the charges annulled. “To find someone that believed in me and having me trust them. It was very hard for me to trust, going through what I was going through at such a young age. For the most part, it felt like nobody cared, but he did.”
At the moment, Igwe, who owns a law practice, The Igwe Firm, serves as Managing Partner. He says The Igwe Firm is dedicated to representing people who have been injured or arrested, aggressively advocating for their rights to get justice.
He also is a member of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Trial Lawyer Association. “He is also licensed to appear before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Igwe is a member of the Wilmington Rotary. He is also the President of the United Way of Delaware Young Impact Professionals Board.
