City agrees to pay Darryl Howard millions for wrongful conviction
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DURHAM, North Carolina (WTVD) — Durham will give a settlement check to Darryl Howard after a federal jury awarded him $6 million more than two years ago for wrongful conviction
According to our newsgathering partners at the News and Observer, the city agreed to pay Howard $7.75 million, his attorney Bradley Bannon confirmed Thursday.
In 1995, Howard was convicted of strangling Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda, and setting their apartment in a now-demolished Durham public housing complex on fire four years prior.
He was sentenced to 80 years in prison – two consecutive 40-year terms for the two murders and one 40-year term for arson.
After nearly 24 years in jail, Howard was freed from a Warren County prison in 2016 after a judge tossed his conviction. This was after a testimony on whether evidence could have proved his innocence was withheld by prosecutors.
Howard was tried by the same prosecutor who was later disbarred for lying and misconduct in the Duke University lacrosse rap case.
After Howard was released, Durham District Attorney Roger Echols said he would not retry him in the case.
Lawsuits after being released The News and Observer reported that in 2017, Howard sued multiple city officials, including the case’s lead detective Darrell Dowdy. He retired as a police captain in 2007.
After the federal trial, Howard and his team, according to the News and Observer, learned that the city refused to pay Dowdy’s judgment.
They would not cover the $6 million jury award or Howard’s $4 million in legal fees.
In 2021, he was granted a pardon of innocence by Governor Roy Cooper.
“It is important to continue our efforts to reform the justice system and to acknowledge wrongful convictions,” Governor Cooper wrote in a statement. “After carefully reviewing Darryl Anthony Howard’s case, I am granting him this Pardon of Innocence.”
In 2023, according to the News and Observer, an appeals ruling allowed Howard to seek damages against two Durham police officers he contends failed to share evidence post-trial that would have allowed him to be released sooner.
He also filed a federal lawsuit against the city, contending Durham officials abandoned him after using him as a ‘pawn’ in litigation, the News and Observer reported.
According to the News and Observer, Durham agreed to pay Howard nearly $8 million to close the case. The city also paid $350,000 in a related settlement, his attorney Tom Comerford said.
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