Woman exonerated after being wrongfully convicted for Safeway robbery in Arlington
Jan 22, 2025
ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) -- The Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County said it and the City of Falls Church’s Conviction Integrity Unit secured its first exoneration based on actual innocence Wednesday.
The Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney said a woman was exonerated after someone falsely used her identification during a robbery at Safeway.
In 2023, a Safeway was robbed and the perpetrator gave police a false and stolen ID, convicting an innocent woman.
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That woman found out about the wrongful conviction during a routine background check and reported it to the Arlington County Police Department (ACPD).
ACPD referred the case over to the Commonwealth's Attorney.
The Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney said after reviewing footage of the crime, it was clear that the woman was wrongfully convicted.
"Our jobs as prosecutors is to do justice. Correcting wrongful convictions are necessarily part of making sure that people are not punished for or suffer the collateral consequences of convictions for crimes they did not commit," said Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, the Commonwealth's Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church.
A motion was filed to vacate the conviction, which was granted Wednesday in the General District Court of Arlington County.