They served decades in prison for a crime they say they didn’t commit
The Washington Post, July 6, 2023: They served decades in prison for a crime they say they didn’t commit
“…Then 16, Yarborough was the youngest of 17 people arrested in the case. He and seven other young men from the neighborhood would eventually be tried, convicted and incarcerated for a combined 258 years. Justice, it seemed, was served.
“But the men have insisted all along that they had nothing to do with the rape and the murder. That they didn’t know anything about those crimes. That their trial wasn’t fair.
“Kelvin Smith, who served 35 years before being released in 2019, died at home in October. Steven Webb died in prison in 1999 after a stroke. He had served 15 years. The other six men — Yarborough, Christopher Turner, Charles Turner, Timothy Catlett, Levy Rouse and Russell Overton — are now in their 50s and 60s.
“They have completed their sentences and been released from prison. The final one got out just last year.
“But this ghastly crime hangs over them. They are free, but not free.
“What they want, they say, is for their names to no longer be associated with one of the most vile crimes in Washington history. And they want the government that prosecuted and jailed them to admit it was wrong for not sharing evidence they believe would have helped them prove their innocence.”
Additional reading
Podcast: The Alley: DC’s 8th and H Case
The Washington Post, June 22, 2017: Supreme Court rules that men convicted in D.C.’s Catherine Fuller murder case do not deserve a new trial
Slate, September 5, 2017: The Murder That Won’t Die: A new Netflix documentary aims to explain how false confessions happen—and raises new questions about D.C.’s most horrific killing.
