Entries tagged with “Joseph Giarratano”
Oct 15, 2024
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…
Issues
Apr 23, 2020
Release of Former Virginia Death-Row Prisoner Delayed as Police Protest Grant of Parole
The release of a former Virginia death-row prisoner has been delayed after police organizations demanded an inquiry into the Virginia Parole Board decision to grant parole to Vincent Lamont Martin (pictured), convicted of the 1979 murder of a Richmond police officer. Martin, who has been eligible for parole for 26 years, had been scheduled to be released on April 30, 2020 following a parole grant approved by a supermajority of the parole board earlier in the month. News reports indicate that…
Issues
Death Row Overview
,Nov 21, 2017
Ex-Virginia Death-Row Prisoner With Strong Claim of Innocence Get Parole After 38 Years
Joseph M. Giarratano (pictured), a former Virginia death-row prisoner who came within two days of execution, has been been granted parole after 38 years in jail for a rape and double murder that lawyers and supporters have long said he did not commit. On November 20, twenty-six years after Governor L. Douglas Wilder commuted Giarratano’s death sentence to life, the Virginia State Parole Board voted to grant him parole. Giarratano was convicted and sentenced to death in Norfolk, Virginia in…