On May 5, Earl Washington got his due. After a two-week civil case in federal court, a jury awarded Washington $2.25 million, plus attorneys fees and costs, for the nine and a half years he spent on death row for a crime he did not commit. Convicted of rape and murder on the basis of a false confession coerced by a State investigator, the Virginia Beach resident was exonerated in 2000 when DNA evidence from the crime scene didn’t match Washington’s samples, but instead pointed to another man.The settlement, however, raises questions about how Washington is going
to get that money. The suit was against
the estate of the police investigator who forced Washington’s confession—but he died in 1994, and his heirs claim that they don’t have that kind of money.
The State itself cannot be sued in civil rights cases, but in the past the General Assembly has awarded money to other wrongfully convicted people. The State’s official position is that it is not legally responsible for paying up. However, according to Steven Rosenfield, one of Washington’s lawyers, the State took this position just five weeks ago, and Washington’s defense team is still trying to unpack the argument of why the State now says they don’t owe Washington a penny, when previously the State has said they would cover settlements between $1 and $2 million.
“We don’t understand on what basis they said they are going to cover it, and
on what basis they say they are not going to cover it,”
says Rosenfield. He intimates that this matter will become more clear if an appeal upholding Washington’s settlement is successful.
No word yet on whether there will be an appeal. If that should happen, Rosenfield says that it won’t be for at least another couple of months.—Nell Boeschenstein