Do local boys make false confessions?
Earl Washington Jr., left, with attorney Steve Rosenfield, spent 18 years in jail and was nearly executed, the result of a false confession. PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCERFalse confessions don’t occur only in big cities like Norfolk or New York. One local man is serving 23 years in prison based upon what his lawyer says is a false confession, and within the last few years, Charlottesville saw the culmination of a case in which an innocent man nearly died. The textbook case on false confession was settled in federal court here in May 2006. Earl Washington Jr. spent 18 years in prison, during which he came within nine days of execution. A jury awarded Washington $2.25 million– later reduced to $1.9 million– in his civil suit against the estate of the late State Police investigator Curtis Reese Wilmore. “That’s a spectacular case of false confession,” says Washington attorney Steve Rosenfield. “A state trooper fed a mildly retarded man answers. So when he asked a second time, the answer would c
Earl Washington Jr., left, with attorney Steve Rosenfield, spent 18 years in jail and was nearly executed, the result of a false confession. PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER False confessions don’t occur only in big cities like Norfolk or New York. One local man is serving 23 years in prison based upon what his lawyer says is a false confession, and within the last few years, Charlottesville saw the culmination of a case in which an innocent man nearly died. The textbook case on false confession was settled in federal court here in May 2006. Earl Washington Jr. spent 18 years in prison, during which he came within nine days of execution. A jury awarded Washington $2.25 million– later reduced to $1.9 million– in his civil suit against the estate of the late State Police investigator Curtis Reese Wilmore. “That’s a spectacular case of false confession,” says Washington attorney Steve Rosenfield. “A state trooper fed a mildly retarded man answers. So when he asked a second time, the answer would
