Virginia House backs compensation for wrongly convicted

By KRISTEN GELINEAU

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia's House of Delegates on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation that would provide compensation to two men who served more than 30 years in prison for sexual assaults DNA evidence proved they did not commit.

Willie Davidson, convicted of a Norfolk sexual assault in 1981 and paroled in 1992 after serving more than 11 years in prison, would receive a check for $168,775 under a bill sponsored by Del. Kenneth Melvin, D-Portsmouth.

Phillip Thurman, who spent 20 years in prison after being convicted of raping an Alexandria woman in 1985, would receive a lump sum of $100,000 plus an annuity of $338,598 from which he would receive monthly payments over 15 years. That bill is sponsored by Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria.

Thurman and Davidson were granted absolute pardons by former Gov. Mark R. Warner in December.

Both men were cleared after biological evidence saved by the late forensic scientist Mary Jane Burton was found and DNA testing revealed they were not the perpetrators. They join three other men wrongly convicted of sexual assaults and cleared in recent years thanks to evidence saved by Burton, who worked in the Virginia state crime lab from 1974 to 1988.

Warner ordered a review of all Burton's samples.