Date / Location: 1988; Washington, D.C. Conviction: Murder Sentence: 1990 Year of Conviction:   Exoneration Date: 21 years Sentence Served: 18 years Compensation: No     On August 5th, 2008, Aaron Michael Howard was released from prison after serving almost twenty years for a crime he did not commit. In 1990, Howard and three co-defendants were sentenced to 21 years to life for the 1988 murder of Bobby Parker in Washington, D.C.Parker, 23, was stopped at a red light at Chesapeake Street and Southern Avenue in Southeast Washington when he was shot eight times. Howard was one of four young…

Victor "Bo" Burnette served 8 years in prison for a 1979 rape he did not commit.  A DNA test cleared Burnette, 56, of the crime, over two decades after having been paroled in Virginia. A rape of a 19-year-old woman occurred in Richmond, Virginia in 1979: the woman woke up on the night on August 3rd to a man having intercourse with her.  She pushed him off of her, and when he moved towards the door, she testified that she “got a very good look at him.”  The next day, she spotted Victor Burnette on her street and believed he…

As part of our efforts to connect with more people interested in the work we do, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project recently joined Facebook Causes. Our causes page features multimedia about our work and about exonerees from around the country. It also will have up to date news about MAIP events and legal developments. Continue your support for MAIP by joining our cause .

On September 19, 2009, MAIP client Thomas Haynesworth became the first person in Virginia to win a Writ of Actual Innocence in a DNA case, when the Supreme Court of Virginia found that DNA testing had proven his innocence in the 1984 rape of a Richmond woman. Mr. Haynesworth, who is represented by MAIP, the Innocence Project in New York, and Hogan & Hartson, was charged as the perpetrator in five separate incidents involving robberies, sexual assaults, or attempted sexual assaults in Richmond and Henrico County between January and April of that year.   He has always insisted that he…

In the five weeks since he was granted a conditional pardon and released from prison, Derek Tice began to start his life over. After twelve years in prison, the Navy veteran landed a construction job and got his first cell phone and e-mail address. On Monday, the member of the group known as the Norfolk Four received a phone call that will change his life forever. U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams vacated Tice's conviction for the 1997 rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. In doing so, Judge Williams granted the habeas…

On February 15, 1975, Leslie Vass was a 17 year old high school senior and basketball player, with no criminal record. All of this would change when he made his daily trip to Baltimore’s Westport Pharmacy, to purchase a newspaper for his mother. Upon entering the store, Vass was identified by Joseph Chester as one of the three men who had robbed him four months earlier, while he was making a delivery to the pharmacy. While it took another week for Chester to contact the police and identify him, Vass was arrested and charged with armed robbery. Vass was tried…