A former Prince George’s County police officer and homeland security official, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for fatally shooting a man inside his home in 2007, has been released from prison after a Georgetown University class reinvestigated his case and worked with defense lawyers to have him resentenced to 20 years. His good behavior in prison sliced another seven years off his term, enabling him to be freed on Wednesday.
The arrest of Keith A. Washington, now 59, attracted intense attention not only because he was a police officer and high-ranking government official, but also because he was closely linked to Jack B. Johnson, then the Prince George’s county executive and prior state’s attorney, who later went to prison for corruption. Prosecutors argued during trial that Washington opened fire on two deliverymen from Marlo Furniture during an argument. Washington contended he fired in self-defense, saying the men attacked him on the upper floor of his home in Accokeek, Md., after he discovered one in a bedroom unconnected to the delivery, while his wife and 6-year-old daughter were downstairs.
Brandon Clark, 22, later died. The other man, Robert White, 37, survived his wounds. The students in the Georgetown class “Making an Exoneree,” taught by lawyers Marc Howard and Martin Tankleff, dug into the case and found evidence that they said bolstered Washington’s claim of self-defense. While Washington’s manslaughter conviction stands, a special prosecutor in Prince George’s said he looked at the students’ research as part of a review of whether the punishment was excessive.
Soon after the incident, then-State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey obtained indictments charging Washington, then 45, with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and multiple other felony charges. The trial hinged largely on the testimony of White, who said Washington repeatedly cursed him and Clark before shooting them, supposedly enraged over faulty bed railings and their late delivery. He said Washington started firing from a distance of six to eight feet, while Washington said it happened at close range during a scuffle. A jury in February 2008 acquitted Washington of the murder charges but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, two assault counts and two firearms counts.
And though state sentencing guidelines called for a range of five to 20 years, Prince George’s Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Whalen ran the various sentences consecutively for a term of 45 years. At the sentencing, Washington turned to Clark’s mother and said, “I did not murder your son.” He added, “I feel your pain. No parent should ever have to bury a child. … I don’t want you to go away thinking some monster shot your son and is indifferent to his death.”
Washington continued to maintain that he had acted in self-defense, but his appeals were rejected. Recently, several developments coalesced in Washington’s favor. One, criminal justice reformers pointed to the heavy sentences being served by people who were no longer a threat to society, and reform-minded prosecutors around the country such as Aisha Braveboy (D), elected the Prince George’s state’s attorney in 2018, began reviewing them and in some cases agreeing to defense motions for sentence reductions.
Second, Howard and Tankleff, himself an exoneree for a murder he didn’t commit, launched their “Making an Exoneree” undergraduate class at Georgetown in 2018. Washington’s is the third case the class has seen success with, though Washington was not exonerated. Each spring semester, the 15-student class divides up five cases to investigate. Publicity about the class led a friend of Washington’s to suggest they take on his case, Howard said.
“We found it completely outrageous he was even convicted,” Howard said. “But to receive a 45-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter? I’ve never heard of that. This is egregious.”
The students assigned to Washington’s case, Josh Rosson, Trevor O’Connor and Céline Berdous, consulted former District medical examiner Jonathan Arden who told them that the gun shots had been fired at close range. They gathered statements from witnesses who said Washington appeared to have been in a fight, though the trial judge disbelieved that. The students made a documentary film about the case.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Richard Finci filed an application with the state’s attorney’s Conviction and Sentencing Integrity Unit to review the case, Deputy State’s Attorney Jason Abbott said. Abbott said the unit asked retired U.S. district judge Alexander Williams to look at the case and file a report, which Williams did, and the prosecutors brought in a special counsel, Charles Tucker Jr., to handle the case since Washington had been a Prince George’s police officer.
“We wanted to make sure this was a fair and transparent process,” Abbott said. “When you look at everything … the sentence was disproportionate. That was what caused us to look at it.”
“The research that was done by the Georgetown students was quite extensive,” Tucker said at a recent hearing, “and did at least provide some guidance as to where the issues were.”
Ivey said Friday he was fine with the current prosecutor reconsidering the case. “Keith Washington was sentenced to twice as much jail time as Derek Chauvin,” the Minneapolis police officer given a 22½ year term Friday for second-degree murder. “He served 13 years, and the judge and the prosecutor agreed that he has paid his debt to society and deserves a second chance. I have no reason to second-guess their decision.”
Braveboy’s office joined Finci in a motion for post-conviction relief, in a hearing conducted by Associate Circuit Court Judge Peter K. Killough over Zoom on May 14. Not everyone was happy to be there, a transcript of the proceeding shows.
“I feel like I’m being ambushed,” said Marilynn Clark, the mother of the deceased deliveryman, who sat through the trial in 2008. “The judge that gave him this sentence, he was there during the whole trial. He heard everything and he saw everything, and I think that what he sentenced should have stood, 40 years. … My son still should be here. This is not fair. This is totally not fair.”
The judge thanked her and moved on. Tucker said White did not respond to requests for his input on the sentencing reduction. Abbott said prosecutors had sympathy for Clark but noted Washington had been convicted and spent more than 13 years in prison, much of it in isolation because he was a former police officer.
Then Washington spoke, again apologizing to Marilynn Clark for the loss of her son. “I had no alternative finding two strange men in my home,” Washington said, adding that he had been fighting them and had never fired his weapon before. “I had to take a man’s life in my home. It haunts me till this day.”
Killough then resentenced Washington to a total of 20 years, still the high end of the sentencing guidelines, and three years of supervised probation. He was released on Wednesday, after the state credited him with seven years for work and good behavior in prison. Bruce Leshan of WUSA9 first reported the release.
“My condolences to the Clark family,” the judge concluded. “Georgetown, keep up the good work.”
“We are just ecstatic that Keith is home,” his wife, Stacey Washington, said Friday. “We are back together as a family, and we have a lot of people to thank for that.”
