CURRENT CLIENTS

Bruce Allen

Bruce Allen was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted capital murder, and robbery for the October 1995 attack of an elderly couple in Crewe, Virginia, allegedly committed with co-defendant Larry Fowlkes. The primary evidence against Mr. Allen was the eyewitness identification by the surviving victim, who made his initial identification while heavily medicated and recovering from severe stab wounds. When the victim was first shown photos, he indicated that Mr. Allen (whom the victim knew) was not one of the perpetrators. At trial, though, the victim identified Mr. Allen as his attacker, sealing Mr. Allen’s fate.   

There was no physical or forensic evidence connecting Mr. Allen (or his co-defendant Larry Fowlkes) to the crime. Mr. Allen presented an alibi defense at trial, argued the unreliability of the victim’s identification, and highlighted the fact that the victim described his attacker as holding the knife in his right hand (Mr. Allen is left-handed).

The victim at various points named at least five different men as his two attackers. The Commonwealth eventually charged Bruce Allen, Larry Fowlkes and a third man named Sharddi Moore – despite the fact that no one ever suggested that the attack involved more than two men. The Commonwealth dropped the charges against Moore just before his scheduled trial, after it learned that the only witness who connected Moore to the crime – a jailhouse informant – had committed suicide. 

Mr. Allen’s co-defendant, Larry Fowlkes, was also convicted of these crimes and likewise possessed a strong claim of actual innocence. Indeed, the first jury empaneled in Fowlkes’ case hung on the question of guilt, despite the fact that the surviving victim identified Fowlkes as one of his attackers. The Commonwealth chose not the present the identification testimony from the victim during the second trial. Instead, the Commonwealth changed its theory of the case entirely, asserting that Fowlkes was the getaway driver and that the attack was perpetrated by Bruce Allen and an unnamed third party – a man who was never identified or prosecuted by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth’s case at Fowlkes’ second trial relied exclusively on the testimony of an incentivized informant. The informant’s testimony has been contradicted by sworn statements from multiple witnesses, and she later recanted her testimony (only to subsequently retract her recantation). 

After his trial, co-defendant Fowlkes was represented by the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project in his efforts to obtain a pardon based on his strong evidence of innocence, which included an alibi that he was at church with many fellow church members, among them a police officer, as well as the evidence regarding the incentivized witness, who testified falsely in exchange for dismissal of pending charges.  Unfortunately, Mr. Fowlkes died in prison before a decision on his clemency request was made.

During the post-conviction investigation in Mr. Allen’s case, UVAIP team members spoke to a witness who reports that on the night of the offense, he saw two other men leave a party with the professed intent to rob victim Albert Bowlin. The witness saw both men return to the party later that evening and heard one man angrily speak to the other about the fact that he had dropped a knife during or after the attack.

UVAIP is representing Mr. Allen in both parole proceedings and his pending clemency petition.

Wayne Fleming was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years for the 1997 death of 13-year old Sterling Phillips in Richmond. The Commonwealth charged two young men – Wayne Fleming and Windale Baker – with the shooting. The only evidence against the two men was the word of Baker’s 14-year old ex-girlfriend, who testified that Baker called her the night after the shooting and told her that he and Mr. Fleming had shot Phillips. The ex-girlfriend has recanted her testimony on several occasions, explaining that Wayne Fleming never made any inculpatory statements to her and that she has no reason to believe that Mr. Fleming was involved in Phillips’s murder.  

Windale Baker maintains that Mr. Fleming had nothing to do with Sterling Phillips’ death. A recently disclosed recording of a police interview with Windale Baker in the weeks following the murder contains considerable exculpatory information that was never disclosed to the defense at trial. Baker was charged as an equal participant in Sterling Phillips’ death. However, while Mr. Fleming was convicted and received a 30-year sentence (he has now served over 23 years), Mr. Baker’s charges were nolle prossed a month after Mr. Fleming’s trial, and Baker went home without serving a day. The Commonwealth proffered no theory under which Mr. Fleming bore more responsibility than Baker and, to this day, has provided no explanation for its failure to prosecute Baker.

We filed a state habeas petition in Richmond Circuit Court in July of 2020, alleging that the Commonwealth knowingly presented false testimony and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence. The first judge assigned to the case said he was very disturbed by the case and believed that an evidentiary hearing should be granted, but he simultaneously recused himself because he was friends and colleagues with the prosecutor on the case. Then began a lengthy series of re-assignments and subsequent recusals by all the other Richmond circuit court judges. The Virginia Supreme Court has assigned a substitute judge to hear the case. An evidentiary hearing took place in November 2023, and we await a final decision. 

Roderick McDowell

In 2009, Rockerick McDowell was convicted of a 2007 murder in the Charlottesville area. William Godsey had been beaten to death by two individuals robbing his wife, a restaurant employee leaving with the day’s deposits.

Mr. McDowell was indicted nearly two years after the crime. The case against Mr. McDowell relied entirely on the testimony of six jailhouse informants, all of whom were convicted felons testifying that Mr. McDowell had confessed to, bragged about, or otherwise admitted to the crime. According to the Innocence Project in New York, jailhouse informants play a role in approximately one in five wrongful convictions. Furthermore, the victim’s wife, who was the sole eyewitness, described the assailant as having been white or Hispanic. Mr. McDowell is Black.

Mr. McDowell has a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pending in federal court.