Exonerated death row inmate Earl Washington Jr. calls his wife Friday after a federal jury awarded him $2.25 million. "I feel great," he said after the verdict.
Posted on 05/06/2006 2:49:09 AM PDT by freepatriot32
A federal jury on Friday awarded $2.25 million to a Virginia man who claimed a police investigator fabricated a rape and murder confession that sent him to death row.
Earl Washington Jr., who came within nine days of being executed, had sued the estate of the state police investigator, Curtis Reese Wilmore, who died in 1994. Jurors awarded Washington damages upon finding that Wilmore deliberately fabricated evidence that led to his conviction and death sentence.
"I feel great - and happy," a smiling Washington said after the verdict.
Washington spent nearly 18 years in prison. He was pardoned in 2000 by then-Gov. Jim Gilmore after sophisticated DNA testing, unavailable at the time of the crime, linked a convicted rapist to the murder.
William G. Broaddus, an attorney for the Wilmore estate, declined to comment after the verdict, other than to say he is considering an appeal.
Washington's attorneys claimed that Wilmore fed their client, who is mildly retarded, specific details that he used in his false confession to the slaying in 1982 of Rebecca Lynn Williams in Culpeper, Va.
For example, Washington said he left a bloodstained shirt in a dresser drawer in a back bedroom of the victim's home, his attorneys noted. Police never revealed the information publicly.
During the trial, a psychologist testified that investigators could easily manipulate Washington because of his mental deficit.
Washington's attorney, Peter Neufeld, said after the decision that the case boiled down to "two men in a room with the door closed. When they walk out, there's a confession with all kinds of nonpublished details."
Said Neufeld: "We learn years later that one of the men could not have possibly have known those details. Therefore, they had to come from the other fellow in this case, Special Agent Curtis Reese Wilmore."
Wilmore's lawyers acknowledged Washington's innocence but argued that Wilmore did not fabricate the confession.
Washington is now a maintenance worker in Virginia Beach.
Neufeld said Washington's attorneys will attempt get the state to pay the damages against Wilmore's estate.
"When he engaged in misconduct he did it as an agent of the commonwealth," Neufeld said, adding that the attorney general's office paid powerhouse law firm McGuireWoods to defend Wilmore's estate.
A telephone message The Associated Press left Friday with the attorney general's office was not immediately returned.
Exonerated death row inmate Earl Washington Jr. calls his wife Friday after a federal jury awarded him $2.25 million. "I feel great," he said after the verdict.
How much does he get to keep after taxes and Attorney fees? :0)
How fair was it with fabricated evidence?
Washington shouldn't get a dime.
You art right there, he should get $25 million, instead of the 2.5 that he got. How much would 18 years of your life stolen from you be worth?
Mistake? The lead investigator fabricated evidence by coercing a mentally deficient man into confessing.
What a moron you are. Have 18 years of YOUR LIFE taken away from YOU because a rogue cop fabricated evidence to get a conviction and death sentence and THEN come back and tell us the constitution ONLY guarentees a "fair" trial.
$2.5 million is not enough. I only wish the cop were still around to do the time for HIS CRIME.
He did not sue the state for a bad trial. He sued the estate of an individual for doing something that, if true, is one of the most evil things anyone can do.
The trial was not fair. The police had to have lied to put someone innocent on death row.
terribly sorry about the 3000+ days stolen from your life and the 60,000 volts, chap - do stay for tea
Aslong as the trial was fair Mr. Washington shouldn't get a dime. It seems that the jury was voting with their hearts and not their heads.
the original trial jury based thier judgment on erroneous information
....and we try and justify a death penalty while railroading challenged minds ?
assinine
"Aslong as the trial was fair Mr. Washington shouldn't get a dime.
How fair was it with fabricated evidence?
Washington shouldn't get a dime.
You art right there, he should get $25 million, instead of the 2.5 that he got. How much would 18 years of your life stolen from you be worth?"
My father always said that he was in favor of capital punishment as long as those judges who make fatal mistakes are being executed too. This is also my point of view, since only then we can be sure that only those who are really guilty would go to the gallows. Hard imprisonment can be ended and -like in this case- compensation can be payed. This is not possible if the sentence of death is executed.
In dubio pro reo
When a cop falsifies evidence it can not ever be a fair trail.
If, even with fair effort, I screw up my taxes, I am still assessed a fine. When the government screws up they should pay. So long as they get to decide who gets arrested, who gets indicted, what is admissable evidence and what a sentence should be, the government owns the process and owns the error
you would do well in iran or 1930s germany.
don't forget the mental anguish from coming within 9 days f execution knowing that your innocent.
What isn't fair is that for all this guy has been through, he's getting less money than the woman who spilled hot coffee on her lap at the McDonalds drive thru.
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