Joseph Giarratano, Former Death Row Prisoner and Prison Reform Advocate, Has Died

Joseph Giarratano (pic­tured, cen­ter) died on October 6, 2024. He had spent near­ly forty years in prison, many of them on death row, for a crime he main­tained he did not com­mit. During his time behind bars, he sought to improve prison con­di­tions and secure access to attor­neys. After being paroled in 2017, he worked at the University of Virginia’s Innocence Project, con­tin­u­ing his work to assist incarcerated people. 

Mr. Giarratano played a piv­otal role in sav­ing the life of Earl Washington, an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled man who was wrong­ful­ly sen­tenced to death in Virginia. When the state set an exe­cu­tion date for Mr. Washington, who had no attor­ney, Mr. Giarratano filed a class action law­suit demand­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion for death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers dur­ing the state post-con­vic­tion phase of their appeals. Thanks to Mr. Giarratano’s fil­ing, a law firm became involved pro bono and obtained a stay of exe­cu­tion for Mr. Washington, who was for­mal­ly exon­er­at­ed years later.