The family of Curtis Reese Wilmore, a deceased Virginia state police officer who allegedly elicited a bogus confession from exonerated death row inmate Earl Washington, says Wilmore is not responsible for Washington’s wrongful imprisonment. They’re appealing a U.S. District Court decision that ruled Wilmore’s estate must pay Washington $2.25 million in damages.
Washington was convicted of the rape and stabbing death of Rebecca Lynn Williams, a 19-year-old mother of two at her home in Culpeper in 1982. The main piece of evidence against him was a confession elicited by Wilmore. Washington’s lawyers charged in the May 2006 suit that Wilmore, a highly-regarded, career police officer who died in 1994, fed details about the case to Washington, who is mildly retarded.
Washington misidentified key facts about the crime during his interrogation: He told investigators that Williams was black (she was white), that he stabbed her three times (she was stabbed nearly 40 times) and that she was alone in the apartment (her two children were in another room). Washington served 17 years in prison, nine and a half of them on death row. He came within nine days of being executed before he was exonerated in 2000. The crime has since been linked to Kenneth Tinsley, a serial rapist currently serving time for another crime. The Wilmores’ attorneys have argued that Wilmore didn’t intend to mislead Washington, whose mental disability, criminal psychologists said during the trial, makes him especially susceptible to persuasion in stressful situations, according to a report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Wilmores are being represented pro bono by McGuire Woods of Richmond, Virginia.
A statement from the Wilmore family says, “While it is terribly unfortunate that the criminal justice system failed… Mr. Wilmore should not be made the culprit. His reputation and legacy deserve better.”
The State has already wiped its hands of the matter of compensating Washington for his time in jail. The Wilmores’ appeal may drag on for six to 18 months, leaving it ambiguous whether Washington will receive any compensation for his 17 years of imprisonment.
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