
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 4, 1994                   TAG: 9402250013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EARL WASHINGTON

EARL WASHINGTON Jr. is to be executed for a murder he most likely did not commit. The state of Virginia will kill him, unless the governor intercedes. He should, and right away.

Washington is a retarded black man convicted and sentenced to death in March 1984 for the 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams in Culpeper County. His conviction was based on a "confession" he made, after waiving his right to counsel, after he was arrested and questioned about an unrelated offense in Fauquier County.

He became a "suspect" because, after being asked about and admitting to several crimes for which he later was exonerated, a police officer thought he "seemed nervous," and asked Washington if he had killed the woman in Culpeper. Washington nodded.

Why would anyone admit to such a heinous crime if he had not committed it? Washington is mentally retarded. He has an I.Q. of about 69, putting him in the bottom 2 percent of the population. Mentally retarded people often try hard to please others, especially authority figures, and are vulnerable to suggestion.

In his initial statement, Washington told police the victim was black (she was white), short (she was 5-foot-8), alone in her apartment (her two children were present), and had been stabbed two or three times (she was stabbed 38 times).

There also was physical evidence at the scene that pointed to a suspect other than Washington. That, plus the highly dubious nature of his confession - at a time when he was confessing to other crimes he did not commit - should have been enough to create a reasonable doubt about Washington's guilt. But none of this information was presented to the jury.

Now there is evidence to make any view except doubt entirely unreasonable.

DNA testing performed last October on sperm found in Rebecca Williams' body carries a genetic trait that neither her husband nor Washington shares.

The sperm could have belonged to a second assailant, of course. But the woman lived long enough to tell her husband and police that she had been attacked by a black man, and he had acted alone.

Virginia law says that evidence found 21 days after a verdict is returned cannot be considered in court. Washington is living evidence of how unreasonable that law is. But he should not have to die to make the point.

Gov. Wilder should pardon him.

by CNB