*****
The jury found Washington guilty in less than an hour -- although one juror, Debra Holmes, told Frontline that she always knew it was a mistake.
The jury stayed out for an hour and a half deciding what sentence to give Washington. Part way through this time, the jurors came back out to ask the judge exactly what "life imprisonment" meant. The judge refused to offer them any help, and Scott had already agreed without argument that he needn't do so. The jury retired and came back with a death sentence.
One of the jurors, Jacob Dodson, recently told the Culpeper News, "I would have preferred life in prison if it was life in prison [without parole]." The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1994 that jurors have to be given an answer to this question.
*****
"The penalty phase was another extremely poor performance [by Scott]," Freedman said, referring to the part of the trial after guilt had been decided and when the death penalty was chosen by the jury.
This phase is usually the time for a defense lawyer to present mitigating factors, including reminding the jury of any residual doubt as to the defendant's guilt. Scott did not do this.
Bennett, in contrast, put on powerful victim-impact evidence. The mother of the victim took the stand and described how the victim's children tried to talk to their mother in heaven on a toy telephone.
"The Supreme Court has been back and forth on whether that's legal," Freedman said. "But it's completely inappropriate. The matter at hand is the moral character of the defendant, not the effects of the crime. And it's an equally bad crime whether the victim had no children or 10 children."
PEOPLE INVOLVED LOOKING BACK
Before the guilty verdict was read in the Culpeper Courthouse on Jan. 20, 1984, convicting Earl Washington of capital murder, Washington's defense lawyer, John Scott Jr., advised Washington's relatives how to behave.
According to James Grayson, a second cousin, "Scott told us not to make any wrong moves when the verdict was read, that the police had orders to shoot. And they put four policemen in front of us with their hands on their guns when they read the guilty verdict. . . .
"How can they live with themselves knowing that they put an innocent man away and the guilty one is still out there? They haven't solved any crime. It makes my temperature boil every time I get to talking about it."
Alfreda Pendleton, Washington's sister, confirmed the story of the officers with their hands on their guns. She said she thought it might have been because "I was crying partly throughout the whole thing. And in my testimony I got loud a couple of times."
*****
Grayson has kept closest to Washington during his years in prison. If Washington is ever released, he will probably go to Grayson's house in Bealeton, Grayson said.
The jury found Washington guilty in less than an hour -- although one juror, Debra Holmes, told Frontline that she always knew it was a mistake.
The jury stayed out for an hour and a half deciding what sentence to give Washington. Part way through this time, the jurors came back out to ask the judge exactly what "life imprisonment" meant. The judge refused to offer them any help, and Scott had already agreed without argument that he needn't do so. The jury retired and came back with a death sentence.
One of the jurors, Jacob Dodson, recently told the Culpeper News, "I would have preferred life in prison if it was life in prison [without parole]." The U.S. Supreme Court held in 1994 that jurors have to be given an answer to this question.
"The penalty phase was another extremely poor performance [by Scott]," Freedman said, referring to the part of the trial after guilt had been decided and when the death penalty was chosen by the jury.
This phase is usually the time for a defense lawyer to present mitigating factors, including reminding the jury of any residual doubt as to the defendant's guilt. Scott did not do this.
Bennett, in contrast, put on powerful victim-impact evidence. The mother of the victim took the stand and described how the victim's children tried to talk to their mother in heaven on a toy telephone.
"The Supreme Court has been back and forth on whether that's legal," Freedman said. "But it's completely inappropriate. The matter at hand is the moral character of the defendant, not the effects of the crime. And it's an equally bad crime whether the victim had no children or 10 children."
PEOPLE INVOLVED LOOKING BACK
Before the guilty verdict was read in the Culpeper Courthouse on Jan. 20, 1984, convicting Earl Washington of capital murder, Washington's defense lawyer, John Scott Jr., advised Washington's relatives how to behave.
According to James Grayson, a second cousin, "Scott told us not to make any wrong moves when the verdict was read, that the police had orders to shoot. And they put four policemen in front of us with their hands on their guns when they read the guilty verdict. . . .
"How can they live with themselves knowing that they put an innocent man away and the guilty one is still out there? They haven't solved any crime. It makes my temperature boil every time I get to talking about it."
Alfreda Pendleton, Washington's sister, confirmed the story of the officers with their hands on their guns. She said she thought it might have been because "I was crying partly throughout the whole thing. And in my testimony I got loud a couple of times."
*****
Grayson has kept closest to Washington during his years in prison. If Washington is ever released, he will probably go to Grayson's house in Bealeton, Grayson said.
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