Set Jeff Washington Free

State Supreme Court Denies Washington’s Plea for Release

By Annette Jones

The Winchester Star

Convicted murderer Jeffery Franklin Washington’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus has been denied by the Virginia Supreme Court.

A writ of habeas corpus is a legal request that the person in custody be released from jail because the custody is unlawful due to fatally flawed legal procedures.

Washington, the convicted trigger man in the 1994 drug-related murder of Carlos Marshall, had hoped to have his conviction overturned.

According to the request filed by Washington, D.C., attorney William Moffitt, Washington claimed that witnesses against him were coerced into giving damaging testimony by representatives of Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul H. Thomson.

The one-page ruling issued Tuesday by the state Supreme Court said the justices didn’t find any merit in the complaints raised by Washington.