WJHG.com:

A Panama City man who spent four years in prison for a crime he did not commit is a free man.

The Governor of Virginia has issued a conditional pardon to Jonathan Montgomery.

Montgomery was convicted of rape in 2008 and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

Last month, the victim recanted her story.

Then 12 days ago, a judge ordered his release but that was held up by the Attorney General’s office.

The pardon finally sets Montgomery free and his mom is driving to the prison tonight to pick her son up.

Ben Tribbett (NLS Blog) had the following to say on Face Book:

A lot of work has to be done for a pardon to be issued, especially the week of Thanksgiving when everyone is trying to get out of town and be with their families.  Got to give a shout out to Janet Vestal Kelly who leads these efforts for Governor McDonnell- and who stayed in town until she got the job done today.  Great work Janet!

This is the most egregious failing of the law I have ever heard of.  This poor young man was just going about his business when he was swooped down on like a hawk with a rabbit in its talons.

Right now, efforts are being made to repeal the Virginia 21-day law which prevents a judge from springing a person if their conviction is more than 21 days old.

On the other hand, is the law more correct than common sense and just plain RIGHT?  Why did Cuccinellii have to stop the process?  It was a stupid law and a wrongful conviction.  He certainly has thought of other ways to get around the laws to advance his own agenda.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that this kid was wrongfully convicted in the first place.  How does something like this happen?  It was an old case when it went to trial.  Literally everything was wrong about this case from its onset.  How do we keep things like this from ever happening again?  There isn’t enough money in Virginia to compensate this young man for all that he has been through.

22 Thoughts to “Jonathan Montgomery released from prison”

  1. This sure isn’t going to be the same boy who went in to prison. Jarrat county facility is rough.

  2. punchak

    Four years of a person’s life gone forever! Years that should have been used for an education for his future. Not to mention the lack of companionship. His parents!
    It’s enough to make me cry!!!

    1. It truly is tragic and should have never happened. No amount of money can ever make up that time or the homelessness that young man felt.

      Shame on Virginia. Shame on Hampton.

  3. Elena

    Can he sue the woman who brought false charges?

    1. Probably not. She was not 18. Don’t know but its a good question.

      This is a horror story for real.

  4. Rick Bentley

    Blame goes to to girl, her parents, the prosecutor, and the jury or judge that convicted him. If any of those had a stronger moral compass, he presumably wouldn’t have been convicted.

  5. I don’t disagree with that, Rick. I just don’t see where someone can be convicted of a crime that serious based on the memory of a 10 year old girl and her say so.

    It almost sounds like the amateur hour. It could have been anyone living in the neighborhood in that year book.

  6. Lyssa

    If he was a juvenile we wouldn’t know if he had a record. Or if he had a juvenile record. Just looking at all sides- regardless, a ten year old girl with understanding of oral sex, surfing pornography on the Internet – I was called naive on this one, but something is/was wrong in her home.

    1. Well it didn’t happen when she was 10. It happened when she wasd 16 or so. She told her parents that she was drawn to porn because she had been sexually abused by this boy. That was her reason for looking at porn…or so she said when she got caught.

      So if she was 15 or 16 add 4 years to his age. I think he should have been tried as a juvenile to start with. The faux crime happened supposedly when he was 14.

      I am so confused now that I don’t know how that fits into your theory Lyssa. This whole story is just so unbelievable.

  7. Rick Bentley

    Again, I have to disagree with that Lyssa. To me the bad parenting is that when they found the kid was surfing the net and looking at sexual stuff, they thought it was such a big freaking deal that she felt compelled to create this story.

    10 is a bit young for detailed knowledge of sex these days, but not by much. Even if you guard against your child accessing any explicit content – which is doable – the kids they hang out with and talk to are generally under no such constraint.

    And remember, this is not as simple as installing some type of guardian software on family computers. A lot of kids have internet access on cellphones, ipads, etc.

  8. Rick Bentley

    They are walking along through life using their internet connections to play online games, or download Hello Kitty memorabilia, and before you know it – before you braced yourself – they are looking at two girls and a cup (sic – I forget the name of that thing) and so forth. This is life in the modern age. It is not as doable to segregate kids from pornography as it was in the pre-digital age.

  9. Rick Bentley

    “She told her parents that she was drawn to porn because she had been sexually abused by this boy.” That’s the immense stupidity here. Girls do look at porn. Some if not all of them will end up looking at it. To think that that is an unnatural state in a girl, that some trauma must be behind it (or maybe Satan) is incredibly stupid.

  10. From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

    Gov. Bob McDonnell on Tuesday issued a conditional pardon and ordered the release of the innocent Florida man who was in prison for sexual assaults his accuser now says did not happen.

    Montgomery, who was locked up on Dec. 10, 2008, after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl — an attack that did not occur — emerged from the Greensville Correctional Center at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.

    “It feels great,” he said. “This is awesome. This is the best experience I’ve had in four years.”

    His first few moments of freedom were spent under a half moon in front of television cameras outside the prison.

    Standing near him, his mother, Mishia Woodruff, of Panama City, Fla., said she felt “liberated. Liberated from all the lies.”

    Montgomery, 26, was serving a seven-year, six-month sentence for crimes allegedly committed in Hampton in 2000 against Elizabeth Paige Coast, who recently admitted she lied and is now facing a perjury charge.

    Asked how they felt about Coast, Montgomery said he could not comment. “It’s just too awful.”

    His mother said, “She can’t take back what she did.”

    Montgomery’s lawyer, Ben Pavek, Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell and the judge who convicted him attempted to get Montgomery out of prison by court order on Nov. 9.

    But a Virginia rule takes jurisdiction away from a circuit judge 21 days after a case is final. That meant Montgomery could be released only with a pardon from McDonnell or a writ of actual innocence from the Virginia Court of Appeals.

    “It is a travesty of justice when an innocent person is confined in a jail or prison, and it should never occur in our society,” McDonnell said in a statement announcing the conditional pardon.

  11. @Rick Bentley

    Kids grow up thinking that wanting to look at porn is “dirty.” I don’t think their parents tell them.

    Its right up there with that universal thought that your parents didn’t ever do “the deed” but once and that was to get you.

    I think you are Lyssa are both saying something was wrong in that house. We don’t really know what though.

  12. Governor Bob McDonnell’s pardon:

    The governor’s pardon reads: “It is a travesty of justice when an innocent person is confined in a jail or prison, and it should never occur in our society. Our office became aware of Mr. Montgomery’s situation last week. Since that time members of my staff, along with the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, the Mid-Atlantic Actual Innocence Project, the Hampton Police Department, the Hampton Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, the Virginia Department of Corrections and the Virginia State Police have worked diligently to gather all necessary information in this case and review the matter thoroughly. I asked Mr. Montgomery’s attorneys to file a petition for a pardon with our office, as that action would allow me to exercise my gubernatorial authority and take immediate action. We received that petition at 10pm last night, and began reviewing it immediately.

    “Our staff, together with their counterparts in various state and local agencies, did a great deal of work on this petition in under 20 hours. And I thank them for that service. After reviewing the petition for a conditional pardon sought by his attorneys, the evidence that came with it, and additional evidence gathered by our staff, I have granted Mr. Montgomery a conditional pardon, as requested, effective immediately. Mr. Montgomery will leave Greensville Correctional Center this evening. This situation has been a tragedy. An innocent man was in jail for four years. While tonight Mr. Montgomery is free from prison, he will never get those years of his life back. Tonight I called Johnathan to personally offer, on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth, our heartfelt apologies for all that he has been put through due to this miscarriage of justice. I am thankful that the witness in this case finally stepped forward to recent her testimony. Justice, while tragically delayed, has been served. I thank everyone who worked so hard on this case to achieve tonight’s outcome. More than anything else, I wish Mr. Montgomery a successful and fulfilled future with his family and his friends.”

  13. Lyssa

    Never mentioned that porn peeping was limited to one gender. Parents do have to stay on top of the kidlets…and their technology. Plenty of people do. But it’s a lot of work.

    I’m glad the boy is out – I hope that’s the end of the story.

  14. Elena

    Rick,
    I am with you 100% on all your points.

  15. Elena

    Honestly, human nature is why I struggle with the dealth penalty. This is a perfect example of why witness testimony alone to convict is tenuous in my opinion.

    1. I am not totally comfortable with the death penalty but some infamous cases more than make me justify it. DNA has made me more comfortable.

      I would have killed John Allen Muhammad in a heart beat but not Malvo. There are lots of others I have no problem with.

      This case with Jonathan Montgomery is simply inexcusable, however.

  16. Scott

    This is the sad side of our justice system. Cases like this have got to keep prosecutors awake at night. If you don’t go forward with the case you’re “allowing a rapist to walk free,” etc. and if prosecute and then end up wrong (like this) you made a horrible mistake and destroyed someone’s life by putting them in prison. It’s a sharp double sided blade and cuts easily.

    And let’s not forget there is a jury involved too. How do you think they feel? Duped? Horrified? That cannot be an easy thing to live with either. Imagine if you chose to send someone to prison based on the trial and find out later that person was innocent.

    1. Welcome Scott. This story horrifies me. How many others have there been?

  17. Lyssa

    Check out “the Innocence Project” and “The Exoneration Project”.

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