softheart
04-23-2006, 10:06 PM
By the Associated Press
April 23, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- A man who came within nine days of being executed before being exonerated will be in court this week in hopes of getting one final piece of vindication.
Earl Washington Jr. sued the estate of former state police investigator Curtis Lee Wilmore, who died in 1994, claiming that Wilmore fabricated Washington's confession in the rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams in 1982 in Culpeper.
Washington's lawyers say Wilmore fed Washington nonpublic details about the case, which he used when giving a false confession. The details in that confession were the key reason Washington was wrongly convicted by a jury, his lawyers claim.
"Earl Washington was innocent, wasn't there and didn't know any of the details of the crime," said Peter Neufeld, one of Washington's lawyers. "The nonpublic details of the crime were fed to him by Wilmore, and Wilmore deliberately misinterpreted to prosecutors that all the details originated with Earl Washington."
The federal trial begins here Monday.
Full Article
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--earlwashington0423apr23,0,6686116.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia
April 23, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- A man who came within nine days of being executed before being exonerated will be in court this week in hopes of getting one final piece of vindication.
Earl Washington Jr. sued the estate of former state police investigator Curtis Lee Wilmore, who died in 1994, claiming that Wilmore fabricated Washington's confession in the rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams in 1982 in Culpeper.
Washington's lawyers say Wilmore fed Washington nonpublic details about the case, which he used when giving a false confession. The details in that confession were the key reason Washington was wrongly convicted by a jury, his lawyers claim.
"Earl Washington was innocent, wasn't there and didn't know any of the details of the crime," said Peter Neufeld, one of Washington's lawyers. "The nonpublic details of the crime were fed to him by Wilmore, and Wilmore deliberately misinterpreted to prosecutors that all the details originated with Earl Washington."
The federal trial begins here Monday.
Full Article
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--earlwashington0423apr23,0,6686116.story?coll=dp-headlines-virginia