The former Prince George's County police officer convicted in the shooting death of a Marlo Furniture deliveryman got out of prison after 13 years with help from a Georgetown University class.
Keith Washington, 59, who also was a former official in the county’s homeland security office, was convicted in 2008 of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of first-degree assault and use of a handgun and sentenced to 45 years in prison for shooting two furniture deliverymen in his Accokeek home. Brandon Clark later died from the gunshot wound. Robert White was wounded.
Washington said he shot the deliverymen in self-defense. The surviving deliveryman said the shooting was unprovoked.
Students in Georgetown’s Making an Exoneree class investigated and made a documentary, and Washington’s case went back to court where his sentence was essentially reduced to time served.
“Keith Washington’s sentence was reduced because his sentence was extremely excessive based on the nature of the charge in the conviction, and there’s no father in America that should go to prison for as long as Keith did for saving his wife and his daughter,” said Washington’s attorney, Martin Tankleff.
“I feel like I’m being ambushed … My son should still be here,” Clark’s mother said in court. “This is not fair. This is not sitting well with me. It’s not. I’m not happy about this.”
New information that came out of the civil trial against Washington, which ended in a hung jury, cast doubt on the testimony of White, said Washington’s wife, Stacy.
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Stacy Washington testified on her husband’s behalf in 2009. "I and my daughter are both downstairs," she said. "My husband is upstairs with them. He sees one of the men coming out of my daughter's bedroom and asked them to leave the house. They did not. Instead, they attacked him."
Keith Washington will be on supervised probation for three years.
