Norfolk man's compensation may need General Assembly

Arthur Whitfield, the Norfolk man incarcerated for more than 22 years before being exonerated on rape charges, will have to keep waiting for state restitution for the time he spent behind bars.

In a meeting with state Sen. Kenneth Stolle on Wednesday, the 54-year-old Whitfield learned he was ineligible for $15,000 in immediate transition assistance the state offers to people who are wrongfully incarcerated.

His best bet, Stolle told him, was to have a legislator request a restitution claim on his behalf during the General Assembly session this winter - an act that would probably get him substantially more money but would require another year's wait.

"I was kind of ashamed to find out nothing's been done in this case," Stolle told Whitfield over a glass-topped table in his Virginia Beach office Wednesday. "I just assumed your legislators were doing that for you."

Stolle said he had contacted Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, about sponsoring a bill requesting aid for Whitfield. The state uses a formula to calculate restitution payments, which are often dispensed as annuities.

"If there's legislation that would help him in his case, I'd be glad to," Northam said. "It does seem unfair and unfortunate for him."

Because of the way Whitfield's case was handled in the beginning - he was released from prison as quickly as possible after DNA results proved his innocence - Whitfield only earlier this year received the governor's pardon.

Without paperwork officially stating his innocence, he was ineligible for the monetary aid the state usually offers wrongfully incarcerated people.

When Whitfield was pardoned in April, his attorney, Michael Fasanaro, filed a request for the $15,000 in transition assistance designed to help wrongly convicted people re-establish themselves outside of prison.

But Virginia Supreme Court officials said Whitfield didn't qualify, because he was already free and did not meet statutory requirements for the money. On Wednesday, Stolle said Whitfield had been out of prison for so long that he didn't qualify as needing transition assistance but rather needed long-term funding to help support him. That money also has been inaccessible to Whitfield until his pardon this year.

Whitfield was 27 when he was incarcerated. At the time he had a girlfriend, and having grown up in Lamberts Point, knew most of his neighbors.

Today, his closely shaved beard has turned gray. The only people he knows in the neighborhood are his family. He said he worried about his safety in the apartment he rents.

"I just want to get away from there," he said.

Whitfield has a job, but his car was impounded because of unpaid bills. His father, Raymond, drives him to and from work. Meanwhile, he's had growing health problems that have led to medical tests and trips to the hospital.

He said he doesn't blame anyone for his troubles but he needs help. The transition to life outside prison hasn't gone as easily as he had hoped.

"The system doesn't work sometimes," Stolle told him. "But if we make a mistake, we need to correct it as soon as possible. We need to try to restore part of the life you would have had. Hopefully we'll get you enough money to get you the care you need."

By next July, Arthur Whitfield will be 55. He will have been out of prison for nearly six years.

"That's a long time," he said. "I've got to struggle a little longer."

Meghan Hoyer, (757) 446-2293, meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com