Gilbert Merritt, who spent two decades incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, got choked up testifying before the Virginia General Assembly.
“I’m mentally crushed,” Merritt told a House of Delegates subcommittee in January. “I just can’t see this happen to somebody else. This is bad. This is real bad.”
Merritt’s twin children had just been born when he was convicted of murder in November 2001; the investigation that resulted in his conviction was led by a detective who was later found guilty of extortion and making false statements.
“I always used to say, like, somebody’s gonna come get me,” Merritt told lawmakers. “This ain't right. Somebody's supposed to come get me.”
Former Norfolk detective Robert Glenn Ford solicited false testimony against Merritt from a woman facing a lengthy prison sentence for drug charges by telling her she’d be able to go home if she testified against him. She was the star witness in the case — but recanted her testimony in 2020.
Ford procured false testimony in other cases, too, to ensure he’d get credit for solving the crimes. There’s currently a review of Ford’s other cases underway at the University of Virginia School of Law; Merritt’s was at least the seventh wrongful conviction in cases he investigated — including the “Norfolk 4.” A separate case Ford worked on involved three false confessions.
While Virginia law allows people like Merritt — who were wrongfully convicted based on fabricated testimony or intentionally suppressed evidence — to get additional compensation, that compensation isn’t always approved.
Del. Rip Sullivan (D–Fairfax) said that’s because the law states that payments from the commonwealth can’t happen until the locality agrees to pay its share.
“It gave the locality sort of a veto power over what the General Assembly could do, which seemed very backwards to me,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan sponsored a bill — which passed unanimously in this year’s General Assembly session and is awaiting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature — that would create a “shared obligation” between the state and the locality for additional compensation in cases involving intentional misconduct by representatives of the commonwealth.
Case reviews shed light on how wrongful convictions occur
Marvin Grimm Jr. also testified before the Virginia General Assembly this January: He was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1976 due to intentional misconduct on the part of the state.
There was mounting public and political pressure on Richmond law enforcement to solve the case quickly, as it involved the death of 3-year-old Christopher Harper.
Additionally, police interrogating Grimm threatened him with the death penalty — which wouldn’t have applied to Harper’s killing at the time — in order to secure a confession.
Grimm told lawmakers that Richmond police officers picked him up for questioning after he’d finished a nine-hour shift at work — then spent nearly 10 hours trying to get him to confess.
“I was not allowed to eat anything, drink anything or call my wife to let her know I was OK,” Grimm said. “They were loudly insistent. They threatened me with the death penalty. I was terrified.”
After police led Grimm to where Harper’s body was found, Grimm said, “Even though I was falling asleep, I tried to repeat everything they told me to say. I just wanted to get away from them. I wanted to go home.”
Lastly, a state medical examiner presented misleading testimony based on the work of former lab analyst Mary Jane Burton during Grimm’s trial — and failed to mention exculpatory blood test results.
The examiner told the court there was sperm in Harper’s mouth, but the secretions in his throat matched Harper’s own blood type, not Grimm’s. DNA testing later revealed no sperm was present.
Burton’s lab work has been called into question following VPM’s "Admissible: Shreds of Evidence" podcast. Virginia’s state lab and the Crime Commission are currently working to determine the scope of her work, andfunding for a deeper review of her cases was included in budget amendments Youngkin is considering.
“No amount of money can make a person whole”
Virginia is the only state that requires its legislature to sign off on each compensation package for a wrongfully convicted person, according to Amanda Wallwin with the Innocence Project.
While Sullivan said bills he’s sponsored to approve these amounts have been the “least political bills I’ve ever been involved with,” Wallwin said putting the process in the hands of elected officials isn’t ideal.
Wallwin said some other states have boards that review and approve compensation packages based on formulas outlined in state law.
Right now, Virginia’s formula awards wrongfully convicted people a base amount of $55,000 for each year they were wrongfully incarcerated, with an annual adjustment for inflation.
Last year, additional compensation was approved for those who also spent time on a sex offender registry or on death row as a result of their wrongful conviction.
There have been other reforms to the system over the last few years as well — including the removal of a provision that made those who’d pleaded guilty to a crime they didn’t commit ineligible to receive compensation from the state.
It also used to be the case that if a person was convicted of an unrelated felony while receiving wrongful conviction compensation, the payments would stop.
“It was a way for the state to sort of keep a sword dangling over a wrongfully convicted person, and that was particularly problematic for a lot of reasons,” said Juliet Hatchett, director of the UVA Innocence Project.
“We know that people who spend time in prison for crimes they didn't commit suffer from PTSD and all sorts of comorbidities as a result of the trauma they've been through, and sometimes those comorbidities can lead to addiction or other mental health issues that can put a person back in the criminal justice system.”
Also removed was the former annuity system of awarding payments. Previously, 25% of the compensation for a wrongful conviction was paid as a lump sum, with the rest paid out over up to 25 years.
Sullivan called the annuity system “overly paternalistic and unfair.”
Recent legislation shortened the annuity window to 10 years, then eliminated it in favor of lump-sum awards.
Still, Hatchett told VPM News she thinks there are further improvements to be made. Recently, the Innocence Project has been advocating for a base compensation of at least $70,000; Wallwin said only a few states and the District of Columbia award this much.
“No amount of money can make a person whole, and it doesn’t change the fact that the person’s not going to get years of their life back,” Hatchett said.
“But I do think there is another higher number somewhere out there. I would challenge anyone to tell me that they would give up a year of their life in prison, wrongfully, for $55,000 plus an adjustment for inflation. I don’t think you’d find many people who would take that deal.”
