BIG AWARD BUT UNLIKELY TO BE COLLECTED

A Virginia man who came within nine days of being executed has been awarded two-and-a-quarter million dollars for a wrongful conviction. Earl Washington spent nearly 18 years in prison before being cleared by DNA testing that pointed to a convicted rapist. He was pardoned in 2000 by then-Governor Jim Gilmore. Washington sued the estate of state police investigator Curtis Reese Wilmore, who died in 1994. Jurors in Charlottesville awarded Washington damages upon finding that Wilmore deliberately fabricated evidence that led to his conviction and death sentence. Washington's attorney says he'll try to get the state to pay the damages.

Report here

Background:

A federal judge ruled last week that there is enough evidence for a jury to consider whether a Virginia State Police investigator falsified evidence in order to help prosecutors win the wrongful conviction of Earl Washington, Jr. In an opinion issued June 23, U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon dismissed civil claims which Washington had filed against the Town of Culpeper and six law enforcement officials involved in the investigation that led to his conviction and death penalty sentence. Washington had accused the officers of forcing him to confess to the June 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams. He spent 17 1/2 years behind bars -- nine of those on death row -- before DNA tests cleared him of the crime and Governor Jim Gilmore pardoned him and ordered his release in February 2001.

"There is no evidence that the officers intentionally took advantage of Washington's mental state at the time of the interrogation to solicit a false confession," Moon wrote in his 24-page decision. However, the judge let stand a claim that Virginia State Police special agent Curtis Reese Wilmore misled prosecutors and jurors in the case.

Washington's conviction had been based primarily on his confession, which had many inconsistencies, along with Wilmore's testimony that Washington told him he left a shirt at Williams' apartment -- a detail that only a person familiar with the crime scene would have known. Wilmore, who is now deceased, later told a Virginia assistant attorney general that police had told Washington before his confession about a shirt that was found in Williams' apartment. "It is significant whether the information regarding the shirt was first volunteered by Washington or whether the presence of the shirt at the murder scene was suggested by police," Moon wrote. "If Washington volunteered the information, it would appear that he had non-public information about the murder scene."

In his confession, Washington stated that 19-year-old Williams was black, that he stabbed her twice, and that he was alone when he killed her. The white woman was actually stabbed 38 times in front of two of her children.

Washington, 43, filed the lawsuit against Culpeper and the officers in 2002 in an effort to clear his name and to expose flaws within the state's criminal justice system. Prosecutors have not taken Washington off their list of suspects in the crime, even though he was pardoned and DNA tests have pointed to Kenneth Tinsley, a convicted rapist currently serving two life sentences.

Peter Neufeld, who is Washington's attorney and co-founder and director (with attorney Barry Scheck) of the Innocence Project, called Moon's ruling a victory. "It's a great opportunity for the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, who will be able to see all the pus and bile that's part of the system of justice that put an innocent man within nine days of execution," Neufeld said.

Report here



(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)