Earl Washington Jr., who spent nine and a half years on death row before being pardoned by former Republican Gov. James S. Gilmore in 2000, has filed a suit alleging that those involved in his 1982 conviction for the rape and murder of a Culpeper woman violated his constitutional rights.
Washington, who once came within nine days of execution, was released in 2001 after DNA evidence linked the crime to another man.
Washington is seeking unspecified compensatory damages.
The suit, filed Monday in the Vinegar Hill U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, alleges that defendants who include Fauquier County, the City of Culpeper and several state investigators made a "concerted effort, acting under the color of state law, to convict him for these brutal crimes despite the total absence of evidence against him."
The suit also accuses current Culpeper Commonwealth Attorney Gary Close, who did not prosecute Washington's case, of defamation of character alleging Close "publicly claimed that [Washington] had in fact committed the sexual assault and murder
even after the DNA exoneration and absolute pardon."
The suit claims that the defendants fed Washington information about the crime in order to secure a false confession from him.
In addition, the suit claims that the defendants suppressed and ignored evidence and deliberately chose not to perform forensic tests that would have exonerated him.
Victor Glasberg, one of Washington's lawyers, attributed the defendants' alleged misconduct to hubris.
"They didn't see the significance of the evidence that would have exonerated Washington because they didn't want to see it," Glasberg said. "They had a good prospect."
Glasberg said it was important to compensate Washington for his losses."A terrible wrong was done to Earl Washington and he's entitled to compensation," Glasberg said.
"He spent nine years on death row, how in God's name can you compensate for that?" he added. "The only thing you can try to do is to put some kind of value in the coin of the realm."
Glasberg said that beyond compensating Washington, the suit is important because it is illustrative of the weaknesses inherent in our justice system.
"We live in a country where by and large people who are convicted of crimes tend to be guilty of them," he said. "This case, however, highlights the unfortunate fact that our courts, including our courts of appeal, are fallible. Human beings are fallible."
According to Glasberg, capital cases magnify the importance of this fallibility.
"This is an awesome concept because when you are dealing with a capital crime you are dealing with the decision to kill someone," Glasberg added.
Jack Payden, director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Washington's case demonstrates a peculiarity of Virginia's court system -- the 21 day rule.
Current Virginia law only allows for the introduction of new evidence up to 21 days after the last day of court proceedings.
"His case brings up an important issue for Virginia and one which voters will get some chance to correct in November at the polls," Payden said."Earl Washington was released due to DNA testing but was denied a new trial, instead he had to be pardoned by the governor."
Payden added that in the November elections voters will decide whether to ratify an amendment to the state constitution which would allow for the introduction of biological evidence like the evidence used to exonerate Washington beyond 21 days.
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