Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano doesn’t want an innocent person to spend time in prison, so his office has created a Conviction Integrity Unit to provide a way for people who believe they have been wrongfully convicted to have their cases reviewed.
“This is our commitment to the public that we are interested in getting this right, that we have the courage to go back and look at other cases to see if a mistake has been made, and to free an innocent person,” Descano told WTOP.
In partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which has helped correct the convictions of more than 40 men in D.C., Virginia and Maryland since its founding in 2000, Descano said the program will benefit more than the innocent inmate.
“Wrongful convictions undermine public trust in the Justice Department and have devastating impacts on defendants, their families and our community,” Descano said.
For a case to be eligible for review, the participant must have been convicted in Fairfax County, and be willing to sign an affidavit that they are factually innocent.
Descano said MAIP will be doing the heavy lifting, initially: “To cull these cases, they really are acting as investigators, acting as a filter, and they’re only going to be bringing us cases for our review that they really think have a very strong claim of innocence.”
While many inmates may feel wronged by the justice system, “What we’re not doing is opening the books to go through every single trial, to see if every motion was done 100% correctly,” Descano said. “We’re really focused on actual innocence.”
The initial screening process will be handled by MAIP — the group will coordinate with the Conviction Integrity Unit to litigate cases that have substantial innocence claims.
Descano said he believes the number of cases referred to the new unit will be small: “Cases where we find new evidence, whether that be DNA evidence or maybe exculpatory evidence that hadn’t been turned over.”
In 2021, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge overturned the 2019 conviction of a Black D.C. firefighter, saying the case was built on false representations from the arresting county police officer.
“The thing that has stuck with me is talking with that D.C. firefighter, after he got out prison, is that for the first time ever, he trusted that the justice system was finally looking out for people like him and trying to do the right thing,” Descano said.
With the new Trump administration, Descano was asked whether he believed the public would have an appetite to support the new Conviction Integrity Unit.
“One thing I think we can all agree on is putting innocent people in jail is a bad thing — not only because a person is in prison and their family is broken up,” Descano said. “It also means that a person who committed a crime got away with it.”
MAIP’s Executive Director Shawn Ambrust applauded Fairfax County’s role in the joint venture.
“When people see that elected officials are willing to identify and learn from past acts of injustice, it enhances the public’s trust in our system and ultimately improves public safety.”
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