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City of Durham Settles Two Lawsuits Related to Alleged Wrongful Conviction

@SpectacularMag

DURHAM, NC – The City of Durham has settled two lawsuits related to Darryl Howard’s alleged wrongful conviction.

Howard

One lawsuit between Darryl Howard and two current Durham police officers was settled for $7.75 million on May 20, 2024. The second lawsuit, between the City and retired Durham Police Officer Darrell Dowdy, was settled for $350,000 on May 20, 2024.

The City denies that the two payments admit wrongdoing or liability but instead avoids the inconvenience, burden, and expense of going back to trial in July. The settlements also remove any possibility that the City might be forced to pay Howard a judgment of $6 million (awarded by a jury in 2021) and more than $4 million in attorney’s fees at the conclusion of a second trial.

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 2016 after a judge tossed his conviction. This was after a testimony on whether evidence could have proved his innocence was withheld by prosecutors.

After the Durham County District Attorney’s Office declined to bring a new criminal trial against him, Mr. Howard filed his wrongful conviction lawsuit in 2017. His suit originally named the City and five individuals as defendants — a fire marshal and four police officers, including Mr. Dowdy. Only the claims against Dowdy, who was the lead investigator for the Washington murders, went to trial in late 2021. At the 2021 trial, the jury awarded Darryl Howard $6 million against Darrell Dowdy personally.

In 2023, Mr. Dowdy sued the City of Durham, asserting that the City had a legal obligation to pay the judgment on his behalf. The City has always disputed that assertion. Both state statute and City Council resolution prohibit the City from paying judgments against former employees who engaged in certain disqualifying conduct. By settling with Mr. Dowdy, the City avoided what would likely have been a long court battle requiring thousands more dollars in legal fees.