The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project is happy to announce that Aaron Michael Howard was released from prison on Tuesday evening after new evidence, uncovered by Howard’s attorneys nearly 20 years after his conviction, proved that he had not committed a murder for which he was serving a sentence of 21 years to life.  At a hearing last week, the newly discovered evidence had prompted led the lead prosecutor to withdraw from the case, stating that he could no longer defend the jury’s verdict against Howard.  The parties subsequently reached an agreement by which Howard would accept a manslaughter conviction in exchange for immediate release from prison.   

"The agreement … is not perfect," Howard said in a written statement. "It is not perfect because, although it allows me to maintain my innocence, it requires me to accept a conviction for a crime I did not commit. That is not something I have done lightly, especially with all the evidence of my innocence that now exists. But I feel like I have little choice, because after 20 years in prison, the agreement gives me my freedom immediately." 

Mr. Howard was represented by D.C. criminal defense attorney Zack Rosenburg, who was appointed by the court, and by partner Seth Rosenthal and his team at the law firm of Venable LLP.  Rosenthal entered the case after Rosenburg asked the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project for assistance. By referring the case to Rosenthal, the Project ensured that Howard would have the resources needed to fully investigate a 20-year-old crime. “By connecting me with Seth, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project played a vital role in securing Mike’s freedom," Rosenburg said. "It is exceedingly difficult to build the kind of case we built for Howard without the help of a firm like Venable, which has proven itself to be a role model for others."

Click on the following links to read the joint MAIP/Venable press release issued August 7, 2008; a written statement by Mr. Howard and to see a picture of Mr. Howard with his legal team.  We have also posted a fact sheet outlining the evidence of Mr. Howard's innocence and the Amended Motion to Vacate and supporting Memorandum of Law filed in D.C. Superior Court by Mr. Howard's legal team. 

An in-depth story about the case appeared in Washington's Legal Times.  The story was also covered by the Washington Times.  You can read that article here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/18/innocence-project-wins-again/.

The story appeared on Fox 5 News and on NBC4 news at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 7.  You can see the clips here:  Fox 5 video and NBC 4 video.

NBC 4 also covered the story on its web site.  You can read their story, along with comments from the community, here: http://www.nbc4.com/news/17121996/detail.html.

It is with great sadness that MAIP announces the death of Larry Fowlkes in his prison cell on Saturday, May 10, 2008.  Mr. Fowlkes died, apparently of natural causes, after waiting four long years for Governor Warner, then Governor Kaine, to act on his clemency petition, filed on his behalf on May 18, 2004, by lawyers recruited by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (“MAIP”).    

In 1995, Mr. Fowlkes was convicted of murder, attempted murder, and robbery, and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.  No physical evidence or eyewitness connected Mr. Fowlkes to the crime.  Moreover, thirteen witnesses – including a minister and police officer – placed him at church, many miles from the crime scene, during the attacks. 

Mr. Fowlkes was convicted based on the testimony of a snitch, Sheila Barbour Stokes.  Ms. Stokes claimed that she overheard Mr. Fowlkes planning the crime and later helped him clean blood out of his car.  Ms. Stokes is a career criminal with so many felony offenses on her record involving deception and fraud that she has been barred from Lunenberg County, Virginia except for court appearances.  The government dropped a felony uttering charge against Ms. Stokes shortly after she testified at Mr. Fowlkes' first trial.   

Testimony from witnesses like Ms. Stokes – criminals who only testify in exchange for favorable treatment – is notoriously unreliable.  Despite that red flag, police and prosecutors continued pursuing Mr. Fowlkes, and Mr. Fowlkes' trial lawyer failed to discover evidence that could have led to his acquittal.  Subsequent evidence – including forensic reports, business records, and her own recantation – has discredited Ms. Stokes’s testimony.  Unfortunately, no jury or court has ever considered that evidence because of mistakes made by his trial counsel and because of restrictive post-trial remedies in Virginia.  Clemency was the only option left for Mr. Fowlkes, whose health steadily and seriously deteriorated from the time he entered prison.   

Lawyers recruited by MAIP filed a clemency petition on May 18, 2004, based upon innocence and, alternatively, on humanitarian grounds, citing Mr. Fowlkes' poor health.  Governor Warner’s staff met with the attorneys on two occasions to discuss the petition, but Warner failed to act before leaving office.  Since Governor Kaine’s election, lawyers tried repeatedly to schedule a meeting with his staff, to no avail.  Mr. Fowlkes had many supporters, including the foreman of the jury that convicted him, who urged wrote a letter to Governor Kaine in which he stated that he would not have voted to convict Mr. Fowlkes if he had known what he knows today.  He urged the Governor to grant Mr. Fowlkes' clemency petition.  To read this letter, click here.  A group of former prosecutors also wrote to Governor Kaine in support of the petition.  To read this letter, click here.To read an Executive Summary of the clemency petition filed on behalf of Mr. Fowlkes, click here.  For a sample letter that you can send to Governor Kaine on behalf of Mr. Fowlkes, click here. 

Prior to his arrest, Mr. Fowlkes had worked on the grounds of the United Methodist Assembly Center in Crewe, Virginia, where he helped care for a magnificent rose garden.  It had been his dream since his arrest to return to that garden, where he would have been welcomed back into the community by his former employer and by his large and loving family.  Mr. Fowlkes never gave up that dream.  He used to tell his lawyers that giving up shows a lack of faith, and that he would never lose his faith.  In the end, it wasn’t the courts, or the governors, or the Innocence Project that freed Larry Fowlkes.  It was his faith, his God, who finally called him home. 

Mr. Fowlkes was 52 years old.  He is survived by a large and affectionate family, including his wife, Annie, his mother, his grandfather, six children, and twenty grand-children.

On April 22, 2004, former prosecutor and current University of Richmond School of Law professor Corinna Lain published a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch urging the release of the Norfolk Four.  Drawing from her own experience in unwittingly persuading an innocent defendant to plead guilty to a crime he had not committed, Ms. Lain asks not only that the Norfolk Four be released, but that we as a society learn from their experience and implement reforms, such as the videotaping of police interrogations, designed to reduce the possibility of wrongful convictions.  To read the piece, click here.  

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project recently published its 2007 annual newsletter.  The newsletter provides updates on our most significant activities of the past year.  To read it, click here.

The primary issues raised in this week's hearing were (1) whether the prosecution covered up information about benefits awarded to snitches who testified against Mr. Hash, and (2) whether detectives declined, for political reasons, to follow up on leads suggesting that someone other than Mr. Hash committed the crime.  The judge ordered the parties to submit written presentations following the hearing.  He expects to make a decision early next year.

To read news coverage of this week's hearing, click here. 

On August 28, Dwayne Allen Dail of North Carolina became the 207th man to be exonerated by DNA.  His 1978 rape conviction was the product of both a mistaken eyewitness identification by a 12-year-old girl and of hair analysis that was given more credibility than the science deserved.  The responsible prosecutor has now called Mr. Dail's conviction "a nightmare."  

To read a news account about this case, click here. 

To read the prosecutor's comments, click here. 

On Sunday, August 19, 2007, the New York Times Magazine featured a lengthy story about the Norfolk Four.  The article contains a balanced discussion of the facts of the case — both as presented at the time of the defendants' convictions and as developed afterwards – and includes an analysis of why suspects falsely confess to serious crimes.  To read the New York times article, click here.  To learn what you can do to support the Norfolk Four, please visit the "Take Action" section of our web site. 

Walter Lomax was freed on December 13, 2006, after spending 39 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit.  Hours earlier, Baltimore Circuit judge Gale E. Rasin had granted Mr. Lomax's motion to reopen his long-closed case.  She then overturned his life prison term and resentenced him to time served.  The Baltimore state's attorney's office did not oppose the motion to reopen or the decision to release Mr. Lomax. 

Mr. Lomax was convicted of a convenience store robbery and killing that he could not have committed because his right arm was in a thick cast at the time.  He was convicted based solely on the testimony of five white witnesses who identified him as the killer, though none said anything about a cast.  As Judge Rasin acknolwedged at the Dec. 13 hearing, such cross-racial identification can be extremely unreliable. 

During his 39 years in prison, Mr. Lomax educated himself, became a writer and editor of a prison newsletter, and amassed dozens of certiricates of achievement and letters of support, some from politicians.  He was recommended for parole four times but kept behind bars by former Governor Parris N. Glendening's decision in 1995 not to parole any prisoners serving life sentences except those who were dying.  Judge Rasin's decision allowed for Mr. Lomax's release, but it did not exonerate him, and he remains a convicted murderer.  He will have to seek a pardon from the governor in order to clear his name and be eligible for compensation from the state.

Mr. Lomax's case was identified and investigated by Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey non-profit organziation that helps people it believes have been wrongly convicted.  Mr. Lomax is the 40th person that Centurion has helped free.  In Maryland, Mr. Lomax was represented by attorneys Larry Nathans and Booth Ripke.  The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project congratulates everyone involved in this wonderful victory.

To read the Baltimore Sun article on Mr. Lomax's release, click here.       

In September of this year, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed to review the decision of the Virginia Court of Appeals in the case of Aleck Carpitcher, a man who was wrongfully convicted in 1999 of sexually assaulting a then nine-year-old girl. Mr. Carpitcher is currently serving 38 years of a 73-year sentence. The nine-year-old, who was the daughter of Mr. Carpitcher’s girlfriend, was the only witness against Mr. Carpitcher. She recanted her testimony nine months after he was convicted, but Mr. Carpticher could not present the evidence because of Virginia’s 21-day rule, which provided that convicted defendants had only 21 days from the date of sentencing to ask to re-open cases based on new evidence of innocence. Mr. Carpitcher became able to present the evidence when the Virginia General Assembly passed the Writ of Actual Innocence legislation in 2004. Earlier this year, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that Mr. Carpitcher was not entitled to relief under that statute because, although the alleged victim had recanted her testimony and was clearly a non-credible witness, Mr. Carpitcher had not succeeded in proving that she was being truthful at the time of the recantation rather than at the time of the original testimony. In other words, because the Court had no idea whether Mr. Carpitcher had committed the crime or not, it decided to let the conviction stand. The Virginia Supreme Court has granted certiorari and will review the Court of Appeals’ decision this year.