Confronting the politics of a pardon
After nearly a decade of trying, Benjamin Gilmer now admits that he was naive to think he could get him released quickly.
After the episode aired, offers of legal help started to arrive, and a team was assembled who agreed to work on the case pro bono. They wanted justice for Vince but also to prevent anyone else with mental illness from experiencing a similar tragedy.
The goal was to get Vince transferred to a secure hospital, a psychiatric facility dedicated to Huntington’s patients, or a nursing home with a dementia unit.
However, after realizing that Vince may not survive a potentially lengthy court battle, the legal team decided to ask the governor of Virginia to grant a clemency pardon.
They gathered the evidence for Vince’s case and presented their petition to Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). He rejected it at the end of his term in 2017.
The team tried again with his successor, Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a neurologist. He dashed their hopes when he rejected their petition in late 2021.
That was a huge setback. The team had spent $1 million and had exhausted every contact they could make with the governor’s office, says Gilmer. “We were totally demoralized.”
He dreaded having to tell Vince that yet another governor had rejected their clemency petition. “I went to prison and could see the hopelessness and despair in his reaction. I lost it emotionally,” says Benjamin Gilmer.
Vince surprised him by hugging and comforting him and thanking him for all his efforts. They had developed a strong bond over a decade of visits and calls. Benjamin Gilmer had even brought his wife and children along on special occasions.
“I thought of him as a friend, as a patient, and someone who was really suffering, all those things helped our relationship evolve and kept me engaged with him all these years and continued to inspire me to fight for him. I also liked him because I knew what he was like before the murder from the stories I was hearing from his friends and patients.”
But his continuous advocacy came at a personal cost. “This battle pushed me to my limits emotionally and intellectually. I was busy building my career, trying to be a good doctor, teacher, husband, and father to two young children. I became so distracted that my wife confronted me several times about not being more emotionally present,” says Benjamin Gilmer.
But he knows that without Vince in his life, he would not have written his first book (released earlier this year) about the case and their unlikely friendship.
A pardon is finally granted
He had also given Gov. Northam’s staff advance copies of the book. In a highly unusual move, the governor reversed his previous rejection and granted Vince Gilmer his long-awaited pardon on January 12.
Benjamin Gilmer isn’t ready to celebrate yet. “Despite being a free man, Vince is still living behind bars because we haven’t been able to find him an available bed in a secure treatment facility. There has been a shortage of beds due to COVID.”
He says Vince is looking forward to being safe and being surrounded by people who are committed to caring for him and not punishing him. He can’t wait to be around his family and to give and receive hugs.
“After a while, it was hard not to believe that I was supposed to be in his path and this was just part of my destiny,” says Benjamin Gilmer.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.