Since 2008, Venable LLP has worked with the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project to free five Washington, D.C., men who collectively spent more than 100 years in prison for murders they didn't commit.

Now, MAIP is using a grant from the firm to start an endowment that will help those exonerees and others from D.C., Maryland and Virginia re-enter society.

The Venable-Burner Exoneree Support Fund is named after the firm and its client, Troy Burner, who spent more than 24 years in prison after a wrongful conviction.

Earlier this year, Burner received $5 million from the D.C. government for his unjust incarceration. Venable said it will donate at least $500,000 in attorney fees from Burner's case to establish the support fund, which will be earmarked for social services, behavioral health counseling, job placement assistance and advocacy training.

The support fund will invest the contribution from Venable and operate off of the investment income.

"The idea is, it's not just going to be a one-time contribution towards operating expenses," Venable partner Seth Rosenthal told Law360 Pulse on Wednesday. "It's going to create an endowment, and it's going to use interest income to pay a part-time social worker, and to also help teach advocacy skills for those clients who want to attain those types of skills. The endowment will open up for MAIP things that it has not had the capacity to do before — things that directly help clients beyond representing them. It really does usher in a new era for the organization."

Rosenthal has been a member of MAIP's board of directors since 2006. Rosenthal, along with MAIP co-counsel and former Venable associate Lauren Stocks-Smith, who left the firm in March to work for the U.S. Senate's Counsel for Employment office, helped secure Burner's release in November 2018 and then his full exoneration in March 2020.

Tried as an aider and abettor in a fatal 1990 D.C. shooting, Burner was convicted based on the testimony of a witness who falsely claimed Burner was at the crime scene. That witness, who had hoped for leniency in his own murder case, later recanted his trial testimony, Rosenthal said.

"The government never really had much of a case to begin with, because it never alleged that Troy pulled the trigger," Rosenthal said. "It sort of, kind of, alleged that Troy had a gun, but not really. It basically alleged that Troy was just present at the scene, and nothing more. So the government's case even taking the recanted witness's testimony at face value was incredibly weak to begin with — there just wasn't much there."

Since his release, Burner has become a spokesman for reform of the criminal legal system. The support fund will also help others who seek justice in that way.

"The adjustment to life outside prison is challenging for all returning citizens, but exonerees have suffered additional trauma and have needs that traditional reentry services — which often are not available to them — cannot address. Thanks to Venable, our clients will have the support they need to rebuild their lives and, if they desire, use their experiences to advocate for reform," MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust said in a statement.

Rosenthal said both he and Stocks-Smith continue to keep in regular contact with Burner, who recently bought his own home in the D.C. area.

"He's doing amazing. He got married on the year anniversary of his exoneration last March to a woman who was actually a childhood friend of his," Rosenthal said. "And he is working full time at the Justice Policy Institute as a criminal justice advocate."

Rosenthal noted that Burner also has testified in front of the District of Columbia Council, advocating for reforms in the criminal legal system.

"He is doing everything that he hoped to do when he was locked up," said Rosenthal.

The other innocent men Venable worked with MAIP to help free were Aaron Michael Howard, Edward Bell, Gary Gathers and Gathers' co-defendant, Keith Mitchell. Mitchell was represented by co-counsel at Miller Chevalier.

Venable is currently working with MAIP on another case, Rosenthal added.

In 2009, MAIP awarded Venable its Defender of Innocence Award for the firm's work on the Howard case, which Rosenthal and Venable partner Moxila Upadhyaya litigated.

Since 2010, Venable has contributed nearly $100,000 to MAIP through Venable Foundation grants and event sponsorships, according to MAIP.

The new Venable-Burner Exoneree Support Fund builds on those past donations, and while the fund is linked by the starting investment to Burner's case, Rosenthal said it will be open to previous exoneree cases the firm has worked on.

"(Howard) was a client of mine who was released in 2008," Rosenthal said. "Edward Bell was released in 2010, Gary Gathers and Keith Mitchell were released in 2015. Will those clients be able to avail themselves of the services that the fund supports? Absolutely."

--Editing by Alyssa Miller.

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