Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has granted an unusual absolute pardon to Davey Reedy, released six years ago after many years of imprisonment on an arson murder conviction after a house fire that killed his two small children. The case is one of dozens in which forensic methods formerly used for evaluating arson have been re-examined as poorly based and unreliable. “According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 38 people have been exonerated before Reedy for arson-related crimes since 1991.” [Washington Post; earlier]
From the Post’s Christmas Day story:
After his release in 2009, he has settled back in the Roanoke area with his family. The day McAuliffe called to tell him of his exoneration, Roberta Bondurant said, he was coordinating a volunteer project.
“He’s at a place and time in his life where he’s at peace with himself,” she said. “It doesn’t help him at all in the time he has left on this planet to hold bitterness for anyone who made a mistake along the way.”
One Comment
I admire him for his attitude and wish that I could say that I had the same attitude. I was falsely arrested for aggravated assault based on the false statements of three people that had, in fact, assaulted and battered me. I suppose that I should count myself as fortunate that I was convicted of 3rd degree misdemeanor assault. But, it still makes me angry that the prosecutor continued to peruse the case after one of them admitted in open court that he had used a choke hold on me. And the prosecutor failed to handle the case properly after I claimed that they were committing attempted criminal trespass. Well, I received a year probation and then the case was dismissed but I am still angry that out justice system simply doesn’t work.