This is a reprint of an OpEd by Elizabeth Simpson published in the INDY Week.
Who would suspect that Concord would be more progressive than Durham on the subject of compensating victims of police corruption?
Yet last week, Concord made good on a $25 million judgment for Ronnie Long, a man who spent 40 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit—and the city also wrote a sincere note of apology. But in Durham, Darryl Howard is still waiting for a $6 million judgment that a jury awarded him in 2021. Mr. Howard is an innocent man who spent 24 years in prison for a rape and murder that he didn’t commit. DNA evidence proved he didn’t do it. The case was weak all along. At trial, one of the prosecution’s coerced witnesses declared: “You can’t force me to come and tell something I didn’t see!”
Back in 2022, Emancipate NC wrote a letter to the city council to explain that its legal justifications for not paying Mr. Howard were feeble. We also visited the Durham City Council with Mr. Howard for public comment and urged the councilors to pay the judgment rather than try to get off the hook based on technicalities. Mr. Howard told them: “It would be impossible to explain what I’ve gone through.” But the Durham City Council, under the leadership of former mayor Elaine O’Neal, refused to pay him what he is owed.
But it’s not too late. Now, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated other Durham Police Department defendants who discovered the exonerating DNA evidence and should have disclosed it to Howard’s lawyers. And meanwhile, Mr. Howard has intervened in a new lawsuit about Durham’s stubborn refusal to pay the judgment. Mr. Howard will go to a settlement conference with the city on February 1, 2024.
We have a new mayor in Durham and three new city councilors: Nate Baker, Chelsea Cook, and Carl Rist. This time around, the council should vote to compensate Mr. Howard fully for his suffering. And, the city should apologize. Not only for wrongfully incarcerating Mr. Howard for 24 long years, but also for making him wait years more for his fair compensation.