Kirk Odum. District of Columbia; Momentous decision: Judge orders D.C. to pay record $9.2 million in wrongful conviction case. The Washington Post has reported that Odom is one of five D.C. men convicted of rape or murder to have his charges vacated since 2009, based on erroneous forensics and testimony by an elite unit of FBI hair experts. Reporter Spenser S. Hsu.

STORY: "Judge order D.C. to pay record $9.2 million in wrongful conviction case," by reporter Spencer S. Hsu, published by the Washington Post on February 28, 2015.

PHOTO CAPTION:  " Kirk Odom was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 21 years in the rape and robbery of a woman in her Capitol Hill apartment in 1981. On Friday, a District of Columbia Superior Court judge ordered the D.C. government to pay a record $9.2 million in damages."

 

GIST: "A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered the District of Columbia government Friday to pay a record $9.2 million in damages to Kirk Odom, 52, who was wrongfully imprisoned for more than 21 years in the rape and robbery of a woman in her Capitol Hill apartment in 1981. The amount, set by Judge Neal Kravitz, is the second – and largest – award in a case tried before a District judge under the District’s wrongful conviction law, which was first approved in 1980. It also is one of the largest non-jury awards in an exoneration case in the United States. “Mr. Odom spent more than twenty-two years of what should have been the prime of his adult life behind bars for a crime he did not commit,” Kravitz wrote in a 37-page opinion that recounted Odom’s “profound” physical and psychological suffering over the decades that included several prison rapes, his diagnosis with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – suicide attempts, depression and estrangement from his family. “It was readily apparent to the court at trial that Mr. Odom is only a shell of the young man he was at the time of his wrongful conviction, and only a shell of the grown man he would have become had he not been wrongly convicted and unjustly imprisoned,” Kravitz wrote. Odom was exonerated in July 2012 after DNA testing showed he was innocent and that only another man could have committed the crime for which he was tried and sentenced in 1982 and incarcerated until 2003. The Washington Post has reported that Odom is one of five D.C. men convicted of rape or murder to have his charges vacated since 2009, based on erroneous forensics and testimony by an elite unit of FBI hair experts."

The entire story can be found at:

 http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article11423009.html

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.
 
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;