Exonerated woman sues Nevada, could get $3.5M under new law
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former Nevada woman has sued the state after spending more than three decades in prison for a murder she didn't commit.
The Las Vegas Journal-Review reported Thursday that 68-year-old Cathy Woods filed a lawsuit Tuesday after spending 35 years behind bars for a 1976 Reno murder.
Federal officials say Woods is the longest-serving wrongfully convicted woman in U.S. history.
Officials say Woods was exonerated and could receive up to $3.5 million under a new Nevada law signed this year.
The law says those released from wrongful imprisonment would receive a certificate of innocence, have conviction records sealed and receive monetary compensation.
Officials say those who spent more than 20 years in prison could receive $100,000 per year.
This case is expected to be the first to test the law.
1976: Community locks its doors after murder at university
University of Nevada, Reno sophomore Michelle Mitchell's car broke down near the school when she was on her way to the store to buy her father some orange juice. She called her mother to pick her up, but when her mom showed up 20 minutes later, Mitchell had disappeared.
A couple returning home later that night found Mitchell's body on their garage floor, her hands tied behind her back and her throat slashed.
The seemingly random and brutal murder of the popular coed sent the community into a panic and police into one of the most intensive investigations in city history. Gun sales to women sailed and reports of a knife-wielding maniac spread. After a year, the hysteria began to subside and police still were empty-handed.
On the third anniversary of the murder, Woods, a former manager of a topless bar, was admitted into a Louisiana mental hospital. She told staff members she wanted to talk to police about slashing the throat of a girl named Michelle.
More:The stories behind Northern Nevada's notorious crimes and disasters
Woods told detectives she killed Mitchell because she laughed at her sexual advance. But investigators continued to explore the possibility her murder was committed to throw police off the track of a stabbing murder of a bar employee. Two people arrested in that murder had connections with the same topless bar that employed Woods.
Woods was found guilty in 1980 and sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned five years later and she received a new trial. A second jury convicted Woods again in 1985 and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Woods was exonerated in September 2014 after DNA evidence found on a cigarette butt left at the scene matched someone else. She was then granted a new trial, but six months later, the state dismissed all charges against her. Woods is one of the longest-serving women to be wrongfully convicted and then exonerated in United States history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations database.
More:Ex-Nevadan wrongly imprisoned accuses Reno of cruelty
More:From 2015: More about the man whose DNA ties him to 1976 Reno murder of Michelle Mitchell
Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com