DURHAM
Darryl Howard, a Durham man wrongfully convicted of murder in the 1990s, still hasn’t been paid the millions that a jury awarded him for 23 years spent behind bars before his exoneration and pardon.
And Thursday afternoon, Howard faced leaders in Durham, the city that employed police officer Darrell Dowdy, who was found to have withheld evidence in the case.
“I beg y’all to reconsider,” Howard implored the Durham City Council. “I’m a victim.”
Wearing a red T-shirt with the word American in bold letters across the front, Howard said it would be impossible to describe the pain wrought by the wrongful imprisonment. He now has a child to care for, though much of his family died while he was incarcerated.
“I think they need to see me. You know, see the person that’s been through all this and hear me speak and hear the pain in my voice,” Howard, now 60, told The News & Observer. “I am having a hard time.”
Howard said after the years he spent battling the case, he never expected getting paid would be so difficult.
“I never thought it would be. I never thought it would be. It never crossed my mind,” he said outside the City Council chambers.
Howard was accompanied by leaders of Emancipate NC, a Durham-based civil rights organization.
Executive Director Dawn Blagrove said it was time for the Durham City Council to do what it was elected to do regarding police accountability.
“It is indisputable that our system is wrought with systemic and institutional racism,” Blagrove said. “I stand here today calling on the council to honor, acknowledge and pay for the harm that has been caused.”
“Durham, North Carolina has been one of those cities that has been an example,” added organizer Dedan Waciuri.
City Council members listened attentively Thursday, but did not speak.
“I would just caution Council not to have any comments regarding that litigation,” Senior Deputy City Attorney Donald O’Toole said before public comment portion of the meeting began.
Why hasn’t Durham paid Darryl Howard?
Howard won a $6 million judgment against a former Durham police officer last year, but the City Council decided in a series of closed sessions soon after not to pay the sum.
City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg has said the “city’s hands were tied” by a state law, The N&O previously reported.
Attorneys with Emancipate NC disagree.
Blagrove, Ian Mance and Elizabeth Simpson sent the council a letter Monday saying they had watched the developments with “a growing sense of alarm.”
“While we were not privy to the conversations that led to your decision, declining payment of a judgment for a wrongful conviction strikes our organization as morally wrong and very bad public policy,” they wrote.
In 2021, a federal jury found Dowdy made up evidence in the case and trial that resulted in Howard’s 1995 conviction in the murders of Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda.
Howard’s 80-year sentence ended in 2016 when a Durham County judge vacated the convictions, citing police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Kerwin Pittman, director of policy and program for Emancipate NC, said the city was denying Howard true justice and setting a worrying precedent.
“Just stop for a second and place yourself in Darryl Howard’s shoes. You have been kidnapped from your loved ones and unjustly incarcerated in a cage. Made to endure over 20 years of hard time for a crime you knew you didn’t commit. Finally, released, only to be tormented yet again by unnecessary and unwarranted state-sanctioned violence,” he wrote in a comment to The N&O.
Rehberg told The N&O in April that because the jury found Dowdy acted in “bad faith,” a North Carolina law blocked them from paying.
Emancipate NC contends the statute she cited doesn’t mention juries and lets the council decide.
“It is up to you,” the group’s attorneys wrote. “Unless a vote is or was called on the question of whether Mr. Dowdy acted because of ‘actual malice,’ and the majority of the council votes or voted yes, then the general statutes present no obstacle to paying Mr. Howard.”
Rehberg also cited a local resolution stating judgments entered against city employees should only be paid by the city if the employees were “engaged in the good faith performance of (their) duties.”
Emancipate NC said that 1981 resolution doesn’t apply, nor is it binding.
“The Council is not bound by the decisions of its predecessors. The present Council has every authority to revise earlier-adopted resolutions,” they wrote. “In other words, the city’s hand are not ‘tied.’”
Both Howard and Dowdy appealed the case to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals this summer.
“Because the case is on appeal, the City has no comment at this time,” Rehberg wrote in an email Tuesday.
This report relied on reporting by staff writer Virginia Bridges.
Clarification: This story was updated after the first online post to clarify that the judgment was against former Durham police officer Darrell Dowdy.
This story was originally published September 06, 2022 6:01 PM.
