We are very excited to report that a Virginia man was finally freed after spending six years in prison for a robbery that he did not commit.  Teddy Thompson, 24, walked out of prison as a free man on September 10.  Under his sentence, he would have served 11 more years before being released.  

Mr. Thompson had been convicted of the robbery based on an eyewitness identification by the victim.  He was convicted despite the fact that (1) he had an alibi for time of the robbery, and (2) a second victim believed that he was not the perpetrator.  "A year or two" ago, according to Mr. Thompson's attorney, the first victim came to realize that he had implicated the wrong person.  However, he did not act on that information immediately.  More recently, he learned that someone else had actually been talking about having robbed him.  He confronted that person, who confessed to the robbery and apologized.  At that point, the victim alerted law enforcement personnel, who interviewed him and believed that he was telling the truth.  In light of this evidence, the Commonwealth's Attorney did not oppose Mr. Thompson's release.

We are thrilled that justice has been done in this case.  We are also thrilled that the Virginia court system worked successfully to produce an exoneration, particularly in a case where the defendant's proof of innocence was a witness recantation rather than DNA evidence.  We hope to be able to report more such Virginia exonerations soon.    

To read a news account of Mr. Thompson's case, click here.