RENO, Nev. (AP) – A woman who spent 35 years in prison for a 1976 Reno killing before being exonerated by DNA evidence has sued officials in Nevada and Louisiana, alleging civil rights violations and malicious prosecution.
Attorneys for Cathy Woods, 66, say she was deprived of almost her entire adult life based on a confession authorities got while questioning her without a lawyer at a psychiatric hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana.
“She was an extremely vulnerable person at that time and today,” Elizabeth Wang, one of Woods’ lawyers, said Tuesday. “Anyone who sees her would see what 35 years in prison did to her.”
Woods, who also used the name Anita Carter, was freed in September 2014 and cleared last year in the stabbing death of 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell near the University of Nevada, Reno.
A National Registry of Exonerations’ database lists Woods as the longest-ever wrongfully incarcerated woman in U.S. history.