DC to Pay $16 Million to Man Framed by Cops for Murder of GU Student: Report

PHOTO of Donald E. Gates courtesy of the Innocence Project

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DC will pay a man more than $16 million after he was framed by police, wrongfully convicted in a 1981 murder and rape of a Georgetown University student, and spent 27 years in prison, The Washington Post reports.

Donald E. Gates spent 27 years behind bars after he was convicted in 1982. He was exonerated in 2009, after DNA evidence eliminated him as the killer and rapist, according to the Innocence Project. He was exonerated Dec. 18, 2009.

He filed a federal civil lawsuit against DC after a jury found he was framed by DC cops, the Post said.

The multimillion-dollar settlement was announced Thursday, a day after the jury’s decision.

“I’m absolutely elated,” Gates, who now lives in Tennessee, said in a statement. “The only thing I can do is thank the Lord. I’m hoping the message goes around the country: ‘You can’t violate a black man or black woman’s civil rights, or no American citizen’s civil rights anywhere.’ That’s what I hope.”

The Innocence Project says that on June 22, 1981, Schilling, a 21-year-old Georgetown University student from Locust, N.J., was found raped and murdered in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. She was nude and had been shot five times in the head.

At the time, Schilling was a paralegal on her way home from the law firm where she worked, according to the Daily Mail.

The Washington Post and the Innocence Project reported that U.S. prosecutors traced DNA left at the murder scene to the true culprit, who died in 2011. Prosecutors said he was a convicted offender and temporary janitor who had worked in the same building as the victim.

Timeline by Maurice Possley, Innocence Project:

• In 1988, Gates sought DNA testing on the hair and tests were attempted, but DNA testing was in its infancy and the results were inconclusive.
• In 1997, an internal review of the FBI laboratory found that Malone and other analysts made false and misleading reports on cases across the country and in numerous instances, their lab notes did not support their reported and testimonial conclusions.
• In January 2002, the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to prosecutors in the case, informing them that Malone’s lab report was not supported by his notes and advising them to determine whether Malone’s hair testimony was material to the conviction. If it was material, DOJ intended to notify the defense of the lapse in Malone’s work. Although it was clearly material, the local US Attorney failed to report back to DOJ and Gates’ defense attorney was not notified.
• In 2007, Gates sought DNA testing again with the help of Sandra Levick from the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Two years later, the request was granted and the tests, conducted on a semen sample collected at death and retained by the District of Columbia medical examiner’s office, eliminated him as the killer and rapist.
• He was released on December 15, 2009 and on December 18, 2009, the charges were dismissed. Upon his release, Gates received $75 and a bus ticket to Ohio.
• In May 2010, District of Columbia Superior Court Senior Judge Fred Ugast granted Gates a certificate of actual innocence. Ultimately, the real perpetrator was identified through the DNA profile of the semen recovered post mortem. The real perpetrator had worked as a temp at the office building of the victim and had followed her home when she left work. By the time he was identified, he was deceased.