On April 18, 2025, ECBAWM filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in federal district court in San Francisco on behalf of Ricky Godfrey against the City of Richmond, California and two former Richmond police officers.  The suit alleges that, in 1992, two police officers—who were members of a lawless gang of officers known as the “Cowboys”—fabricated the most important evidence in the prosecution’s case against Mr. Godfrey by coercing a teenage witness into falsely naming Mr. Godfrey as the perpetrator.  The officers then suppressed all evidence of their witness coercion.  Based on this fabricated evidence and the police officers’ suppression of related exculpatory information, Mr. Godfrey faced a death penalty prosecution in 1993, was wrongfully convicted of first-degree felony murder, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2010, the key witness recanted and revealed in a sworn statement that his identification of Mr. Godfrey had been coerced by the police, who had threatened to charge him as an accessory to murder and send him to prison for life unless he identified the shooter.  As a result of the witness’s recantation and a subsequent reinvestigation by the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit and the Public Defenders Office, Mr. Godfrey’s murder conviction was vacated in 2023, he pled no contest to a lesser offense, and he was immediately released after spending over three decades in prison.

ECBAWM attorney Nick Bourland made the following statement: “For decades, the City of Richmond and its ‘Cowboy’ police officers treated the city like the Wild West.  Predictably, this culture of misconduct caused innocent people to be wrongfully prosecuted and convicted, including Ricky Godfrey.  Now, after waiting over 30 years to hold Richmond and two of its most notorious police officers accountable, Mr. Godfrey will have his day in court.”

Mr. Godfrey is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Earl S. Ward, Nick Bourland, and Rachael Wyant.