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As Virginia's lawmakers return to Richmond on Wednesday to conform the state's laws of evidence with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Arthur Whitfield will be undergoing chemotherapy. The Norfolk man, who spent more than 22 years in prison for crimes he did not commit, has liver cancer.
His illness gives even more urgency to the bill Sen. Ken Stolle has introduced, and which the General Assembly should pass posthaste, to compensate Whitfield immediately for the decades he spent behind bars.
Whitfield was 27 when he was sent to prison for 63 years for two rapes in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood, convicted largely on the basis of an identification by a victim. He was released from prison in 2004 after DNA testing showed he did not commit the two rapes in 1981.
Since then, without a trace of bitterness, he has patiently worked to clear his name. In April, Gov. Tim Kaine pardoned him, but it came too late for the General Assembly, in its regular session, to authorize payment to Whitfield for taking away his freedom, his chance for an education and for relationships with family and friends.
Such a payment - by law it's limited to $750,000 - is routinely granted to others who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes.
Whitfield has a job and, at the moment, health insurance. But he has struggled to pay his bills since his release and has had to ask his aging parents for help.
Now, as The Pilot's Michelle Washington and Julian Walker reported, doctors are trying to shrink the tumor they found on Whitfield's liver. He's struggling with headaches and nausea from the first round of chemotherapy. He's lost more than 30 pounds.
"I can't say I got a bum deal," Whitfield said. "Our lives are already planned. But to get locked up for 23 years, and then it seemed I couldn't get any help from the state and then I found this out - it seemed like three strikes."
Indeed.
Legislators plan a one-day special session Wednesday to try to fix the laws on forensic testimony to comply with the Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts court ruling, which has caused confusion in courts across the country. Given the potential ramifications of requiring lab analysts to testify about the blood, DNA and myriad other tests they perform, we're not convinced a good and permanent fix can be found in this session.
But lawmakers can help make the rest of Arthur Whitfield's life more comfortable. They should authorize payment, in lump sum, as their first order of business.
"I'm trying to feel good about things are going to work out," Whitfield told The Pilot.
For once, the state should reward his optimism by giving him financial security and a measure of peace.
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We--society owe this man
The taxpayers need to step up and pay him. It was the elected taxpayer supported system that wrongfully convicted him. Now it is time for the system to compensate him. If you don't like paying out money for elected officials' mistakes...start electing better people to the job.
I say compensate him...
and excuse any taxes the state has the authority to excuse! This is an outrage. Governor Kaine ought to be more vocal and public about this, and be front and center demanding that the legislature right this wrong!
And NOW!!
Compensation
It should be recognized that there is an ingrained aversion among elected legislators to admit that they might have made an error. Not only that, but having finally realized it, doing anything to correct it! In this case, as in others where errors are made due to ignorance or unwillingness to diagree with the person(s) in power, no one wants to step in and be the first to admit that they might have been wrong. This would adversely affect their chances of re-election. It is particularly egregious in cases where one person uses his legislative power to co-erce the others to vote in a certain way, at the risk of never having a bill introduced or serving on a committee.
It is a prime reason for term limits!
Sorry, I don't buy it
Obviously, someone owes him, and owes him a lot. However, "For once, the state should reward his optimism by giving him financial security and a measure of peace" well, that means taxpayers. I just can't see why taxpayers have any responsibility for this. Who then?
It seems that the witness whose testimony convicted him is the only "guilty" party here.
Let's take care of this situation finally.
This story has been around too long without any action by someone in authority helping this poor man. This is an obvious case of beauracratic intanglement that no one in government has taken up this man's cause after months of this story being on the front page. I realize that there is an awful lot of going on with health care reform and tight budgets but this is ridiculous. No wonder people people have so little trust in government institutions after situations like this.