www.facebook.com/midatlanticip

Become a fan today!

Thanks in large part to the work of the Innocence Project of Texas, a Dallas man was pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday, nearly thirty years after he was wrongfully accused of of raping and killing his girlfriend.

James Lee Woodard was originally released from prison in April 2008 after a DNA-retesting program run by the new Dallas District Attorney cleared him of the 1980 murder of  Beverly Ann Jones. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he consistently denied doing. DNA testing was unavailable at the time of the crime. On Wednesday, the Governor officially cleared his name.

(more…)

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 .

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 corpus petition filed by Tice's attorneys, including MAIP Board Member Des Hogan.

Tice was released from prison in August along with Danial Williams and Joseph Dick after VA Gov. Timothy Kaine granted the men a conditional pardon . While the pardon released the men from prison, it did not establish their innocence for the crimes.

The men confessed to the crimes during high-pressure interrogations. In the brief, Tice's attorneys argued that his trial attorney should have tried to keep jurors from hearing his confession on the grounds that police continued to question him after he had invoked his right to remain silent. The federal judge agreed with that statement.

"Had counsel pursued such a motion, there is a reasonable probability that Tice would not have been convicted," Williams wrote. 

A fifth man, Omar Ballard, has confessed to the crimes and is currently incarcerated for killing Moore-Bosko.  All of the DNA and forensic evidence from the crime scene match him, his confession is the only one that accurately describes the crime scene and he has continually said that he acted alone in the crime.

Tice told the Associated Press that he was "flabbergasted" by the news and that "hopefully this is one more step to get my life back, and get back to where I was before all this happened." He added that he will continue to fight to help Dick, Williams and Eric Wilson, completely clear their names of the crime.

To read the Judge's ruling that exonerated Derek Tice, click here.

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 place; some of this evidence had come up in the months before Willingham was executed.

(more…)

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 including times and locations. Contact John Hardenbergh at jhardenbergh@exonerate.org to RSVP for a training session.

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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. (more…)