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EDITORIAL: Delayed Justice for Earl Washington

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 09:09 CDT

By The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

May 10--Virginia has spent more than two decades defending the indefensible in the death-row case of Earl Washington Jr. Each time the state insists on its version of the truth, some independent entity -- a group of lawyers, a modern DNA test, a forensic-lab audit, a journalist -- comes along and exposes the sham.

Sometimes the process takes years, but eventually the state winds up looking inept at best, deceitful at worst.

Last week, a nine-person federal jury in Charlottesville rendered the latest such verdict. Deceased state police Officer Reese Wilmore, who recorded Washington's false confession to the 1982 rape and murder of a Culpeper housewife, deliberately fabricated portions, the jury of eight whites and one black concluded.

They awarded the mentally challenged Virginia Beach handyman an astounding $2.25 million for his 9-1/2 years on death row and for coming within nine days of execution in 1985.

Now, the state faces a decision-whether to appeal or to give it up. Wilmore's heirs have a voice, but the greater volume belongs to the state, which is paying for the defense. Given the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of taxpayer dollars already spent futilely defending various state actions in this case, Gov. Tim Kaine and Attorney Gen. Bob McDonnell should call a halt.

If appealed, odds are good that the verdict won't change. The state's only gain will be more embarrassment and more wasted dollars.

Ironically, Virginia could have saved itself a bundle of grief if lawmakers had granted Washington's initial request for $1 million in compensation in 2003. His attorneys filed the civil suit after a legislative panel gave him nothing, in part because his attack on an elderly neighbor set events in motion.

The Charlottesville jury concluded the attack did not justify nearly a decade on death row.

Due to the civil suit, information unavailable when former Gov. Jim Gilmore pardoned Washington in 2000 has come to light, much of it damning to the state. For instance, a blue-ribbon audit ordered by former Gov. Mark Warner concluded that the state forensic lab botched the case in 2000 and possibly during an initial DNA test in 1993. A proper test identified convicted rapist Kenneth Tinsley as the virtually certain source of semen on the victim's body. The lab had erroneously ruled him out as a contributor.

Documents obtained through the lawsuit also revealed Wilmore's private confession to an assistant attorney general that police officers, not Washington, first mentioned a key piece of evidence, a shirt left at the crime scene. At Washington's trial and in the "confession" Wilmore recorded, the officer suggested otherwise.

Virginia ought to take three more actions involving this case: First, fairly compensate Washington for his time on death row. Second, identify Tinsley as the obvious culprit and withdraw the scurrilous statement of a special prosecutor two years ago that Washington remains a suspect. Third, instruct law enforcement officials to audio- or videotape interrogations in cases punishable by life imprisonment or death.

The least useful action Virginia could take would be to drag out, once again, the day of reckoning.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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