- 24,819
- 11,978
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2012
A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered the District government Friday to pay a record $9.2 million in damages to Kirk L. Odom, 52, who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 22 years in the rape and robbery of a woman in her Capitol Hill apartment in 1981.
The amount, set by Judge Neal E. Kravitz, is the second — and largest — award in a case tried before a District judge under the District’s wrongful conviction law, which was approved in 1980. It also is one of the largest non-jury awards in an exoneration case in the United States.
“Mr. Odom spent more than twenty-two years of what should have been the prime of his adult life behind bars for a crime he did not commit,” Kravitz wrote in a 37-page opinion that recounted Odom’s “profound” physical and psychological suffering over the decades that included several prison rapes, his diagnosis with HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — suicide attempts, depression and family estrangement.
Odom was exonerated in July 2012 after DNA testing showed that he was innocent and that another man — a convicted sex offender — committed the crime for which he was tried and sentenced in 1982 and incarcerated until 2003.
Rest of the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...4edaa6-beea-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html
The amount, set by Judge Neal E. Kravitz, is the second — and largest — award in a case tried before a District judge under the District’s wrongful conviction law, which was approved in 1980. It also is one of the largest non-jury awards in an exoneration case in the United States.
“Mr. Odom spent more than twenty-two years of what should have been the prime of his adult life behind bars for a crime he did not commit,” Kravitz wrote in a 37-page opinion that recounted Odom’s “profound” physical and psychological suffering over the decades that included several prison rapes, his diagnosis with HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — suicide attempts, depression and family estrangement.
Odom was exonerated in July 2012 after DNA testing showed that he was innocent and that another man — a convicted sex offender — committed the crime for which he was tried and sentenced in 1982 and incarcerated until 2003.
Rest of the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...4edaa6-beea-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html
