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.

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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.

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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.

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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…)

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 enough money for him to pay his car and utilities bills. Since his car was impounded, he has had to rely on his father to drive him to work every day. His gas and water have been shut off. Despite his struggles, Whitfield has been completely unable to receive any compensation from the state that has now admitted to wrongfully convicting him, even the $15,000 transition assistance grant given to exonerated convicts trying to restart their life after being wrongfully convicted.

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After twenty-three years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Robert Lee Stinson was exonerated Monday when prosecutors in Milwaukee County, WI decided not to retry him for the 1984 murder of a 62-year-old woman.

Stinson was first released from prison in January, when Judge Patricia McMahon vacated his sentence. However, McMahon gave prosecutors six months to retry him for the murder of Ione Cychosz. However, thanks to the work done by the attorneys at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, prosecutors decided not to pursue a new trial. 

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Seven exonerees of wrongful convictions and a best-selling legal writer were among the speakers July 15 at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project’s Second Annual Awards Luncheon.

John Grisham, whose book The Innocent Man has helped bring light to wrongful convictions, was the keynote speaker at the event after receiving the Champion of Justice Award. Grisham was introduced by Dennis Fritz, whose struggle for freedom was chronicled in Grisham’s book.

Grisham’s speech highlighted many of the accomplishments by the innocence movement. He also stressed the need for future action, emphasizing the case of the four convicted sailors known as the Norfolk Four. Former VA. Gov. Mark Warner was given the award last year. (more…)

But Will Have Limited Impact, Innocence Project Says

(WASHINGTON, DC; June 18, 2009) – Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision denying post-conviction DNA testing to an Alaska prisoner is flawed and disappointing but will have a limited impact on cases across the country, according to the Innocence Project. (more…)

Thomas Haynesworth has been maintaining his innocence of a 1984 rape for nearly 25 years, and now it appears DNA may prove his case. (more…)