THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LaFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 55 lines
A Newport News man sentenced to 72 years in prison for a rape he did not commit received an absolute pardon from Gov. George F. Allen Wednesday.
In exchange for her admission that she lied in court about the rape, the woman who accused the man will not be charged with perjury.
Steven Lawton was convicted and sentenced in Newport News Circuit Court in 1990 for a rape he was accused of committing in 1988. His girlfriend, Yvonne Crittle Johnson, was also accused and convicted in the case.
Both went to prison.
According to Lawton's attorney, Hampton lawyer Pamela Jones, the couple was accused by a friend who had consensual sex with Lawton and then became angry about something else.
The friend, Tammy Wilson, testified that Johnson held a gun on her while Lawton raped her, then gave the gun to Lawton, who held it while Johnson sodomized her.
But when Johnson ran into Wilson after being released from prison last year, Wilson admitted the sex was consensual and apologized for lying in court, Jones said.
The next time the two women spoke, Johnson wore a body wire and taped the conversation.
The tape was given to Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn.
``Obviously, I was very concerned,'' said Gwynn. ``As a prosecutor, I have a responsibility to make sure not only that guilty people get punished but also that innocent people do not.''
Gwynn said he talked to Johnson, then tracked Wilson down at a drug rehabilitation center in Richmond. She admitted she lied in court after he offered her immunity from prosecution for perjury, Gwynn said.
``The decision I made. . . was it is more important to have an innocent person released than have her locked up,'' he said.
In August of 1996, Lawton petitioned Allen for clemency. Gwynn wrote a letter supporting the petition.
Investigators for Allen gave polygraph tests to Johnson and Wilson and obtained an affidavit from Wilson ``in which she admitted that Steve Lawton did not force her into sex and there was no gun present at the time,'' according to an order for the pardon released by Allen's office Tuesday.
``Tammy Wilson, who now admits that she lied under oath at Steve Lawton's trial, has perpetrated a monstrous fraud, not only against Steve Lawton but also against the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia,'' the order said.
But Lawton, who is being held at the Keene Mountain Correctional Center in Buchanan County, will not soon see daylight, according to Department of Corrections spokesman David Botkins. In addition to the rape conviction, said Botkins, Lawton was also convicted twice for forgery and once for grand larceny. He has 10 more years to serve.
Johnson also plans to seek a pardon. MEMO: Staff writer Robert Little contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: PARDON VIRGINIA RAPE