Arcane Rule Keeps Innocent Man in Virginia Prison
Recanted testimony came too late
AN INNOCENT MAN sits in a Virginia prison because of an archaic and draconian state law and balky officials in Richmond who will not move off the dime to free him.
We wrote last week about the case of Jonathan Montgomery, who was convicted in 2008 of sexual assault on the strength of testimony from a teenage girl who has now recanted. The accuser, charged with perjury, is free while she awaits trial. Mr. Montgomery, sentenced to 7 1 / 2 years, is innocent but can't get out of prison. This is ludicrous.
The immediate cause of the legal logjam keeping him behind bars is Virginia's noxious 21-day rule, which prohibits trial judges from reviewing newly discovered evidence if it is presented more than three weeks after sentencing. Exceptions are made only in the case of biological evidence such as DNA.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
But the actual cause is that imprisonment is profitable.
In the particular case, Gov McDonnell pardoned him last night, and ordered his immediate release.