Jury hands win to man who wrongly spent 27 years behind bars
WASHINGTON (AP) – A jury has found District of Columbia police acted improperly in the case of a man who spent 27 years behind bars for a rape and murder he didn’t commit, a verdict that means the city could be ordered to pay millions.
The Washington Post reports (http://wapo.st/1SZ7M7s ) that a jury Wednesday sided with Donald Eugene Gates in a civil lawsuit. Gates was freed in 2009 after DNA evidence cleared him in the 1981 rape and murder of Georgetown University student Catherine Schilling. The jury will now hear testimony about appropriate damages.
Gates, a resident of Knoxville, Tennessee, said Wednesday was “one of the happiest days of my life.” A spokesman for the District of Columbia Attorney General’s office, which has been defending police’s actions in the case, declined comment.
