Post by Logan on Dec 6, 2016 0:27:56 GMT -6
RENO — Law enforcement officials in Nevada and Louisiana responsible for sending a woman to prison for 35 years for a Reno murder she did not commit are doing everything they can now to keep her from getting the compensation she deserves, her lawyer says.
Cathy Woods, 67, was freed last year after new DNA evidence exonerated her in the 1976 killing of Michelle Mitchell and implicated an Oregon inmate now accused of multiple murders in the San Francisco Bay Area during the same period.
Woods’ attorney, Elizabeth Wang, filed a federal lawsuit on her behalf in Reno in August seeking unspecified damages from the city, the county, an ex-prosecutor and former police officers she accuses of coercing a false confession from Woods at a psychiatric hospital in Louisiana in 1979.
This week, a U.S. magistrate judge refused to order defense attorneys to make their clients available for depositions. Instead, Judge Valerie Cook granted defense motions Tuesday to put discovery on hold until a judge decides whether to dismiss the case, which may not happen “until next summer or possibly even next fall,” Wang said.
Read more: www.nevadaappeal.com/news/government/reno-woman-wrongfully-imprisoned-35-years-wants-compensation/
Cathy Woods, 67, was freed last year after new DNA evidence exonerated her in the 1976 killing of Michelle Mitchell and implicated an Oregon inmate now accused of multiple murders in the San Francisco Bay Area during the same period.
Woods’ attorney, Elizabeth Wang, filed a federal lawsuit on her behalf in Reno in August seeking unspecified damages from the city, the county, an ex-prosecutor and former police officers she accuses of coercing a false confession from Woods at a psychiatric hospital in Louisiana in 1979.
This week, a U.S. magistrate judge refused to order defense attorneys to make their clients available for depositions. Instead, Judge Valerie Cook granted defense motions Tuesday to put discovery on hold until a judge decides whether to dismiss the case, which may not happen “until next summer or possibly even next fall,” Wang said.
Read more: www.nevadaappeal.com/news/government/reno-woman-wrongfully-imprisoned-35-years-wants-compensation/