Durham agrees to pay Darryl Howard millions for wrongful conviction
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Durham will give a settlement check to Darryl Howard after a federal jury awarded him $6 million more than two years ago for wrongful conviction
A lawsuit between Howard and two current Durham police officers was settled for $7.75 million on May 20, the City of Durham said Friday.
In 1995, Howard was convicted of strangling Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda, and setting their apartment in a now-demolished Durham public housing complex on fire four years prior.
He was sentenced to 80 years in prison -- two consecutive 40-year terms for the two murders and one 40-year term for arson.
After nearly 24 years behind bars, Howard was freed from a Warren County prison in 2016after a judge tossed his conviction. This was after a testimony on whether evidence could have proved his innocence was withheld by prosecutors.
Howard was tried by the same prosecutor who was later disbarred for lying and misconduct in the case of the Duke University lacrosse rape claim that was later proven false.
After Howard was released, Durham District Attorney Roger Echols said he would not retry him in the case.
WATCH | Durham man wrongly convicted in double murder pardoned
The City of Durham also settled a second lawsuit, between the City and retired Durham police officer Darrell Dowdy, who was the lead detective on the Howard case. That legal action was settled on May 20 for $350,000.
The City denies that the two payments admit wrongdoing or liability, but instead "avoids inconvenience, burden, and expense of going back to trial in July."
The settlements also remove the possibility that the City might be forced to pay Howard the judgment of $6 million awarded by the jury and more than $4 million in attorney's fees after a second trial.
Lawsuits after being released
In 2017, Howard sued the City of Durham and five individual defendants, including Dowdy, who retired as a police captain in 2007.
Only the claims against Dowdy went to trial in late 2021. At the 2021 trial, the jury awarded Howard $6 million against Dowdy personally the City said.
Dowdy sued the City of Durham in 2023, asserting that the City had a legal obligation to pay the judgment on his behalf, something the City disputed, citing a state statute and a City Council resolution that prohibited the City from paying judgments against former employees who "engaged in certain disqualifying conduct."
By settling with Dowdy, the City of Durham "avoided what would likely have been a long court battle requiring thousands more dollars in legal fees."
In 2021, Howard was granted a pardon of innocence by Gov. Roy Cooper.
"It is important to continue our efforts to reform the justice system and to acknowledge wrongful convictions," Cooper wrote in a statement. "After carefully reviewing Darryl Anthony Howard's case, I am granting him this Pardon of Innocence."
