The facts of the long, sad story remain largely unchanged. In 1982, Rebecca Lynn Williams, then 19, was raped, stabbed 38 times and left to die on the doorstep of her apartment in Culpeper while her two children were in another room. Earl Washington, Jr., a farm worker with an I.Q. under 70, was convicted in the rape and capital murder. Washington served 17 years in prison—nine and a half of those on death row—before DNA evidence cleared him in 2000, prompting reforms to Virginia’s notorious 21-day rule. That rule gave inmates less than a month to introduce new evidence in their cases.
What is up in the air is how the story will end. Police may have finally found the real killer: Kenneth M. Tinsley, 61, indicted in Williams’ death earlier this month, is already serving a life sentence in Sussex II State Prison for the 1984 rape of an Albemarle waitress. Tinsley was a suspect in the Williams murder in 2000—his DNA was found at the crime scene.
The mildly retarded Washington was awarded $2.25 million in damages by a Charlottesville jury in May. He sued the estate of Curtis Lee Willmore, a now-deceased State investigator who elicited the confession which led to Washington’s conviction. Now Washington is seeking complete exoneration from Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.
Washington’s lawyer, Peter Neufeld, was quoted in The Washington Post: “Governor Gilmore granted him a pardon on the grounds that a jury would have reasonable doubt. We are going to ask Governor Kaine to amend the pardon to change the reason to Earl Washington’s actual, unequivocal innocence.”
Kaine’s staff has responded that Washington is welcome to make the request, but that an indictment of Tinsley is not enough to prove Washington’s undisputed innocence. Tinsley is scheduled to appear in court September 6.—Meg McEvoy