Five years ago, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for setting the fire that killed his three young daughters. Now, a fire expert hired by the state that sentenced him to death has concluded that Willingham was incapable of committing arson. In a report to the Texas Forensic Science Commission released last week, the International Association of Fire Saftety Science ruled out the possibility of arson as the cause of the fire that killed 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron on Dec. 23, 1991, in their Corsicana home. A number of other experts have concluded that no arson took…

After DNA tests proved that six Virginians had been convicted of crimes they had not committed, then-Virginia Governor Warner ordered a comprehensive review of old criminal cases that still had untested biological evidence. And last year, Governor Kaine signed a bill that required the state to identify pro bono lawyers who can notify people when testable biological evidence is found that may be able to prove their innocence. The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is working with the Virginia Crime Commission to present a series of brown bag trainings for attorneys interested in participating in this program. Click here for more information…

April 21, 2009 The wait is finally over for Arthur Lee Whitfield. Five years after he was released based on newly discovered evidence and months after he was pardoned, Whitfield was awarded over $600 thousand in compensation for his wrongful conviction. The Virginia General Assembly called a one-day special session Wednesday to discuss compensation for Whitfield, who was wrongfully convicted of a pair of rapes in 1980. The assembly passed legislation to award him $633,000.

For the past two years, student investigators at the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University have been fighting to prove the innocence of Willie T. Donald, a man wrongfully convicted of a murder and armed robbery as part of a 1992 crime spree in Gary, Indiana. The group of students, which included now Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Development Associate Daniel Satin, may have found their big break when the victim of the armed robbery recently recanted her testimony that pointed Donald out as her assailant.

After More Than 11 Years, Justice Still Eludes the Norfolk Four After spending more than 11 harsh years in prison for a crime they did not commit, Joseph J. Dick, Jr., Derek E. Tice, and Danial J. Williams, became free men Thursday.  Governor Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia granted conditional pardons to the Navy veterans but fell short of granting absolute pardons based on innocence. A fourth innocent sailor, Eric C. Wilson, was released in 2005 after serving 8 ½ years in prison. His clemency request was denied today by Governor Kaine.

A team of Jones Day attorneys recruited by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project helped a seventeen-year old boy from Ghana who had been forced into involuntary servitude have his sentence vacated July 30th after being held for months for a crime he could not legally be charged for. The boy, whose name is sealed, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor when he began a relationship with the fifteen-year old daughter of the man with whom he was living.

Twenty-eight years after he was convicted of a pair of rapes he did not commit, Arthur Lee Whitfield continues to wait. He waited in prison for twenty-two years before DNA proved his innocence and he was freed on parole. He had to wait nearly five more years until last April, when VA Gov. Tim Kaine granted him a pardon. Now a free and exonerated man, Whitfield is still waiting for the compensation that will allow him to get his life on track. In the time since he was released, Whitfield has struggled to get by. His job does not provide…