Stolle drafts bill to help freed Norfolk man get restitution

NORFOLK

State Sen. Kenneth Stolle said Thursday that he will try to get state restitution more quickly for a Norfolk man who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 22 years on charges of rape.

He may face problems getting it considered.

Arthur Whitfield, 54, has been out of prison for almost five years. He has shuttled between jobs, his car has been impounded, and the water has been cut off at his Lamberts Point apartment. His father drives him to work each morning, although lately Whitfield's health problems have meant days off for lab tests, he said earlier this week.

Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, drafted a bill Thursday that he hopes will go before the General Assembly during a special session that begins Aug. 19. It calls for Whitfield to receive $445,703 in compensation for the 22 years he spent behind bars.

Stolle said getting the money to Whitfield now, instead of waiting for the regular session in January - as legislators had previously planned - could help the struggling man.

"He's got health issues, he's kind of slipped through the cracks," Stolle said. "Instead of holding it in limbo another year, we should try to introduce it."

But getting it before legislators for a vote will be its own challenge, Stolle conceded.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine earlier this week called the special session only so legislators can amend state law dealing with how government forensic scientists are called to testify in criminal trials. The state needs to respond to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that places the burden on prosecutors to have crime analysts testify in court about evidence, rather than simply submit a written report.

When Kaine announced the session, he said legislative leaders had agreed to keep its scope limited.

There is a possibility that a claims bill could be filed at the start of the special session, said House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, but it's unlikely that it will be heard unless legislators agree to include it in a procedural resolution they must adopt.

Griffith cautioned that making an exception for one bill could open the floodgates for other legislation and distract lawmakers from the forensic evidence issue.

Fairfax County Democratic Sen. Richard Saslaw, the Senate Majority Leader, said he plans to stick to the understanding reached with Kaine. Saslaw said he sympathizes with Whitfield's plight and isn't opposed to compensating him when legislators return to Richmond early next year.

Stolle said he hopes public pressure on the legislators will change their minds.

Whitfield's attorney, Michael Fasanaro, said he worries that the amount Whitfield would receive - which equals about $20,000 for every year he spent incarcerated - isn't enough.

"I would say that's low," Fasanaro said.

The amount was calculated according to a state formula set in 2004. Whitfield would receive roughly $89,000 initially and the rest over 25 years. He would also be eligible for $10,000 in tuition assistance at any Virginia community college.

Fasanaro said Whitfield needs the cash as soon as possible: "The guy's desperate for the money."

Oddly, it has been Whitfield's very freedom that has stood in the way of his receiving state aid quicker. When DNA test results in 2004 found that he was not the man who had committed two 1981 rapes in Norfolk, he was released on parole almost immediately.

That circumvented the normal release procedure for wrongfully incarcerated people, and along with a protest from a rape victim, delayed a governor's pardon until April of this year.

Fasanaro immediately applied for transition money often paid to wrongfully incarcerated individuals, but the state Supreme Court ruled that Whitfield was not eligible.

Fasanaro said Thursday that he has been working with Del. Bob Tata, R-Virginia Beach, to prepare a claims bill for Whitfield for the General Assembly's regular session. But he welcomed a chance to introduce Whitfield's claim earlier, in August. Tata did not return a call to his office Thursday.

Fasanaro said people in the community have sent in roughly $2,500 to help Whitfield.

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