RENO, Nev. (AP) — A former Nevada woman suing for compensation after spending more than three decades in prison for a murder she didn't commit won't have to travel back to Reno to give her formal deposition.
A federal judge ruled Thursday lawyers for the city of Reno must travel to Washington state where Cathy Woods now lives to get her formal statement before a trial is expected to begin later this year.
The city had insisted Woods come to Reno to give her deposition. Woods' lawyers said that was a cruel way to treat a woman who still suffers from mental illness exacerbated by 35 years of wrongful imprisonment for a 1976 murder.
Woods was released from prison four years ago when new DNA evidence from a crime-scene cigarette butt was linked to an Oregon inmate recently convicted of two California killings.