A D.C. judge had denied petitions to vacate the convictions in the 1984 Catherine Fuller rape and murder that shocked the city.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg found that the case relied mostly on the testimony of the witnesses and defendants, which he found not credible.
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“Having heard the ‘new’ evidence, the court is convinced that the totality of evidence pointing to the guilty of these seven petitions remains, as the Court of Appeals first characterized it — ‘overwhelming.,” Weisberg wrote in his decision.
In the late afternoon of Oct. 1, 1984, Fuller — a tiny 48-year-old grandmother — was dragged into a Northeast D.C. alley near H and Eighth streets and beaten, sodomized with a pole and robbed of $50 in cash and a ring.
Police focused their investigation on a group of young people who hung out at a nearby park who called themselves the 8-N-H Crew and had nicknames like “Snot Rag” and “Bobo.”
Eight people were convicted by a jury, and two pleaded guilty.
Weisberg allowed a review of the case after defense attorneys said they found information that could have prevented the convictions of the eight that went to trial, one of whom has since died in prison.
