Ending a four-decade battle for justice, the Baltimore Board of Estimates voted on January 6th to approve a $14 million settlement to Gary Washington, resolving his civil rights lawsuit alleging that Baltimore Police police manipulated witnesses and fabricated evidence to secure his wrongful conviction.
Two days after Christmas in 1986, a man named Faheem Ali was shot and killed in East Baltimore after an argument with two men. Mr. Washington, then a 25-year-old new father, was arrested for the murder and convicted largely on the word of a 12-year-old witness. Nearly 10 years later, that witness recanted his testimony, alleging that it was coerced by Baltimore police officers who threatened to take him away from his mother and charge him with the homicide himself.
Mr. Washington’s petitions for post-conviction relief, based on this new evidence, were denied until August 2018, when the court overturned his petition, granted him a writ of actual innocence, and ordered him released after more than 30 years in prison. The state officially dropped all charges against him in January 2019.
In 2024, Mr. Robinson received a $3 million payment from the state, under Maryland’s Walter Lomax Act of 2021, a measure to provide payments for individuals who have been wrongly imprisoned. On that occasion, Maryland Governor Wes Moore personally apologized to Mr. Washington. “11,459 days, or 31 years, were stolen from Mr. Washington,” Gov. Moore said. “On behalf of the entire state, I’m sorry for the failure of the justice system.”
However, Mr. Washington’s lawsuit against the City of Baltimore, and the individual officers responsible for his wrongful conviction, continued. This month, that lawsuit was finally settled, with a $14 million payment authorized by the City of Baltimore almost exactly 39 years after Mr. Washington was arrested.
“While this settlement cannot make up for the more than three decades Mr. Washington spent wrongfully imprisoned and falsely branded a murderer, it is an important end to a nearly 40-year legal battle to clear his name and hold these officers accountable,” Loevy + Loevy partner Renee Spence told CBS Baltimore.
In addition to Ms. Spence, Mr. Washington is represented by Jon Loevy, Gayle Horn, and Roshna Bala Keen of Loevy + Loevy.