Governor, please expedite this pardon

After serving nearly 22 years in prison, Arthur Whitfield was cleared by DNA of the charge of rape and released from prison in August 2004. As the Virginian Pilot reports today, his name has yet to be cleared.

Since then, Whitfield has struggled to clear his name. The Virginia Supreme Court refused to declare him innocent, saying it no longer had jurisdiction because Whitfield had already been released from prison. So Whitfield petitioned the governor. That was in December 2005.

The man has paid a terrible price for a wrongful conviction. Not only the 22 years in prison, but the nearly three since his release.

There has to be a process whereby his pardon can be fast-tracked. For that matter, it seems to me that once he was exonerated, his record should have automatically been cleared. Instead, bureaucracy has kept his life on hold.

I intend to write the Governor today and ask him to grant this pardon as soon as possible. It’s simply the right thing to do.