By Stacy Watkins, VCU Capital News Service
RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia lawmakers unanimously approved bills to financially compensate three men wrongfully convicted of crimes, some who spent decades in prison.
Marvin Leon Grimm Jr. was wrongfully convicted in 1976 of first-degree murder, sodomy by force and abduction with intent to defile a 3-year-old boy. The child wandered away from home and was missing four days before he was found in the James River, with alcohol, acetaminophen, and prescription muscle relaxant found in his blood, liver and stomach.
Grimm, who was found innocent last year, spent 45 years imprisoned and then registered with the sex offender registry for an additional four years when released on parole, according to the bill.
Del. Rip Sullivan Jr., D-Fairfax, sponsored House Bill 1776, to compensate Grimm from the state’s general fund. The budget sent to the governor for approval lists the relief amount at $5.83 million.
Sullivan also sponsored HB 1780, to grant relief to Gilbert Merritt III for wrongful incarceration of first-degree murder. The budget includes $2.63 million for Merritt.
Merritt served over 20 years in prison. His conviction was the work of former Norfolk homicide detective Robert Glenn Ford, who has been found responsible for at least six wrongful convictions, according to the bill. Ford threatened a woman facing drug charges into providing false testimony against Merritt.
Lawmakers also awarded Keshawn Clarence Duffy $398,655 for wrongful imprisonment and inclusion on the sex offender registry. Michael Haas will receive $134,045 for wrongful inclusion on the sex offender registry. Haas was awarded over $1.5 million in 2023 for his wrongful conviction.
Between 4% to 6% of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons are innocent, according to the Georgia Innocence Project.
“These situations of wrongful conviction don’t happen often, but they also do happen too often, one is too many,” Sullivan said.
It is necessary to help individuals who have been wrongfully convicted, so they begin to support themselves and their families, Sullivan said.
“There’s no way we can right these wrongs, there’s no way we can go back in time, there’s no way we can give these people back the parts of their lives that they’ve lost,” Sullivan said.
Grimm Tells Lawmakers What Justice System Took Away
There is no amount of time to fully share how the wrongful conviction affected Grimm and his family, Grimm said in video testimony.
Grimm was unable to attend weddings, birthdays, holidays or family funerals. He lost his sister and mother, who was his biggest supporter during incarceration, according to Grimm. His wife severed ties with him, and took their newborn son during his time in solitary confinement. Grimm fears his son grew up thinking his father was a “heinous monster.”
Grimm lived in the same apartment complex as the family of the deceased child. Officers with the Richmond Police Department picked Grimm up from his job, where he just finished a nine-hour shift, and took him into questioning for 10 hours to get him to confess, according to Grimm.
“At that point, I’d been almost awake for 24 hours,” Grimm said. “That is when they finally read me my rights, and for the first time turned on the tape recorder.”
Authorities acquired a false confession from Grimm, who says he was “falling asleep” by the time the lengthy interrogation wrapped up.
“They threatened me with the death penalty, I was terrified,” Grimm said. “The thought of dying scared me.”
The commonwealth offered a plea agreement that he could avoid the death penalty if he pleaded guilty, according to Grimm.
“I was told the blood testing results were inconclusive,” Grimm said. “Even though, as I learned later, they proved that I didn’t commit the crime.”
Grimm was sent to prison, where he never stopped trying to prove his innocence.
“I even had to fight to get the DNA testing, and I was denied parole 25 times,” Grimm said.
Virginia Lab Analyst Questioned
The physical evidence from Grimm’s case was sent to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science, where it was analyzed by forensic analyst Mary Jane Burton, according to the University of Michigan Law School. At least 12 men have been exonerated whose Burton’s evidence helped to convict.
“If you search the system, you’ll find we’ve passed another bill this year to have the crime commission do a study of [Burton],” Sullivan said.
HB 2730 mandates the Virginia State Crime Commission to designate a panel to review cases where forensic testing was performed by Burton.
Burton, who died in 1999, could potentially indicate a systemic issue within the Department of Forensic Science, due to her extended tenure, according to Sullivan.
VPM created the 12-part podcast series “Admissible,” which examined Burton’s work and the impact of forensic evidence in wrongful convictions. A whistleblower said Burton had falsified results, according to the podcast.
Testing by the Department of Forensic Science in 2012 refuted some of Burton’s forensic claims about the amount of the deceased child’s hair found in Grimm’s car. Then the Mitotyping Technologies lab in 2023 found no evidence of Grimm’s involvement in the child’s murder, according to the Innocence Project.
The Virginia Crime Commission launched a review of about 4,800 of Burton’s cases after the podcast aired, according to the Michigan report.