Vigil for the Wrongfully Convicted

Saturday, July 22nd 2017, from 6-8pm, on the sidewalks outside of the Virginia State Capitol (1000 Bank Street, Richmond VA), Virginians for Judicial Reform are holding a rally and vigil to raise awareness of 3 wrongful convictions and 2 unfair sentencings. The cases are as follows:

Dustin Turner was convicted of the 1995 murder of Jennifer Evans. Turner maintains that he was only an accessory after the fact, and that fellow Navy SEAL trainee Billy Brown, also convicted, actually committed the murder. In 2002, Brown confessed to being the sole murderer, and Turner appealed his conviction. He won the appeal, but the state attorney general's office filed their own appeal and won, in a decision which was upheld in 2011 by the state Supreme Court. (The reasoning appears to be that although Turner likely did not commit the murder, and although there is no evidence indicating he abducted Evans, a theoretical jury might find it plausible that he abducted her by means of deceit.) He has now served 18 years in prison. For more information, see Free Dusty Turner or Virginians for Justice - Clemency for Dustin Turner.

Tim Wright was convicted of the 2008 murder of Justin Robert Baumgardner in Amherst County. He was arrested based on the testimony of Justin Davis, the son of a local deputy sheriff who Wright contends actually committed the murder. There are a number of irregularities in the case, including lost exonerating evidence and a refusal to perform DNA tests on casings found at the scene. The handgun used to kill Baumgardner belonged to Davis, who claimed that Wright had stolen it. For more information, see Innocence 4 Tim.

Ivan Teleguz was convicted of the 2001 murder of Stephanie Sipe in Harrisonburg and sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted by Gov. McAuliffe to life in prison earlier this year, due to doubts about his guilt. The prime witnesses against Teleguz were Michael Hetrick, the actual murderer, Edwin Gilkes, and Aleksey Safanov. Hetrick, who claimed that Teleguz hired him to commit the murder, was threatened with the death penalty if he did not testify against Teleguz, but later admitted to not knowing him or having ever had contact with him. Gilkes and Safanov both later indicated that their accounts were fabricated in exchange for more lenient sentencing in their uninvolved crimes. Learn more at Justice for Ivan Teleguz.

The other cases which are the subject of this vigil are unknown to me.

For more info and to RSVP, see this link.