They Were Acquitted But Sentenced to Life Anyway. Now, They’re Finally Free.

After decades in prison, two men found not guilty of murdering a police officer but sentenced to life anyway are coming home. On Jan. 17, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, including Terence Richardson and Ferrone Claiborne.

“This moment underscores the urgent need to reform a system that too often denies fairness and truth,” ​​Jarrett Adams, co-founder of Life After Justice and lead attorney for both men, told The Appeal. “Life After Justice is committed to ensuring that Terence and Ferrone receive the support they need to address the trauma and lifelong impact of wrongful incarceration following their imminent release.”

Adams said that while the commutation allows Richardson and Claiborne to return to their families, the legal battle to exonerate them is not over. A state appellate court is still considering Richardson’s innocence petition.

In 1998, someone shot and killed police officer Allen Gibson in the small town of Waverly, Virginia. Richardson and Claiborne emerged as suspects in the ensuing investigation—even though no physical evidence linked them to the crime. Police had information suggesting a different person may have been involved in the killing. But prosecutors did not share that evidence with Richardson and Claiborne’s defense attorneys. 

Richardson and Claiborne insist they did not kill Gibson. But as poor Black men accused of killing a white police officer in the South, they feared they could be sentenced to death if they went to trial and lost. Out of fear for their lives, both men pleaded guilty: Richardson to involuntary manslaughter and Claiborne to acting as an accessory to the crime. 

But Gibson’s family decried the plea deals and sought harsher punishment. In response, federal prosecutors hit the pair with additional charges, alleging Richardson and Claiborne sold crack cocaine and murdered a police officer during a drug deal gone wrong. 

In 2001, Richardson and Claiborne went to trial in the federal case. A jury found them not guilty of Gibson’s murder but guilty of selling crack. In an unusual move, federal judge Robert Payne sentenced Richardson and Claiborne to life in prison using “acquitted conduct sentencing,” a legal mechanism that allows judges to sentence defendants based on charges for which they were not convicted. At the time, a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the concept as legal. In April 2024, the U.S. Sentencing Commission changed its guidelines and significantly restricted the practice in federal cases.

Last week, Biden commuted the drug conviction that led to Richardson and Claiborne’s life sentences. The state can now release the pair from prison. They are expected to get out in July.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and state attorney general Jason Miyares said Richardson and Claiborne’s release outraged them. 

In a statement, Youngkin incorrectly stated that both men had “admitted to being responsible for the brutal killing of Officer Allen Gibson.”

“If the Democrats intend to build their vision of social justice on a pile of dead law enforcement officers, they could send no stronger message than the one they sent today,” Miyares said in a statement. 

Richardson and Claiborne’s attorney rebuked Youngkin and Miyares.

“We invite the public to take a closer look at the facts for themselves,” Adams said. “We encourage everyone to review all the filings, examine the evidence, and make an informed decision about what is true and what is not. Transparency and accountability are essential in uncovering the full truth, and we believe the evidence speaks for itself. “

In 2021, former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s Conviction Integrity Unit determined that law enforcement officials withheld evidence from Richardson’s defense attorneys. The agency said courts should grant Richardson a writ of innocence.  

“It is clear from the record that some information and evidence presented in Mr. Richardson’s federal trial was unavailable to him when he pled guilty in state court, including information that a key witness lied to state investigators and lied during the preliminary hearing,” Herring wrote. 

But within a month of taking office in 2022, Miyares—a tough-on-crime Republican—reversed course. Miyares’s office has fought to keep the two men incarcerated.

“The clemency decision is a vital step toward correcting a grave injustice,” Virginia NAACP President Rev. Cozy Bailey said in a statement. “The Waverly Two are not just a statistic; they are individuals whose lives were shattered by a flawed legal system.” 

While the group praised Biden’s decision, it called out Youngkin and Miyares for “politicizing” the case.

“Instead of focusing on justice and truth,” the NAACP wrote, “they have chosen to manipulate facts for their political agenda.”