After a week of indecision, Richmond officials are signaling they intend to approve the $5.8 million a new state law requires the city to pay as restitution for Marvin Grimm, a Richmond man who was formally exonerated last year after wrongfully convicted of murder and sexual assault in 1976.

On Friday, Mayor Danny Avula and the City Council announced they’ll hold a special meeting in the near future to introduce an ordinance dealing with the payment to Grimm.

“Restitution is a major step towards justice,” said Council President Cynthia Newbille (7th District). “This action represents our commitment to upholding the law and is a necessary part of the healing process. It is a tragedy that this occurred in the first place, and it is my fervent hope that Mr. Grimm will be able to find the peace and support he deserves.”

The release didn’t say exactly when the meeting will be held or exactly what the ordinance will do. Because the city didn’t budget for the costly payment to Grimm, officials must approve a budget amendment reallocating money to cover it.

“My chief administrative officer has been working to identify appropriate funding sources, and we will move swiftly. What Mr. Grimm endured was unconscionable,” Avula said. “While nothing can restore the decades of life Mr. Grimm lost, we are committed to addressing this injustice.”

Grimm’s trouble getting the city to pay spilled into the open when Gov. Glenn Youngkin sent Avula a letter on July 25 threatening to withhold state funds from Richmond if the city didn’t make the payment within a few weeks. Grimm’s legal team had asked the governor to intervene after trying to contact city officials for months without getting a clear answer on whether Richmond intended to pay.

Grimm was convicted for the alleged murder and sexual assault of a 3-year-old boy whose body was found in the James River after he disappeared from an apartment complex. Grimm lived in the same complex, and became a suspect in the case because of neighborly disputes he had with the boy’s family.

Grimm confessed to the crime and entered a guilty plea, but later said he only did so after being interrogated to the point of exhaustion and being incorrectly told he could get the death penalty if he didn’t admit to killing the child. He was paroled in 2020, and successfully pressed his innocence claim thanks to new DNA testing that undercut key evidence in the case and a more modern understanding of false confessions.

During the 2025 General Assembly session, state officials passed a bill giving Grimm $5.8 million in restitution under a process meant to avoid forcing wrongfully incarcerated people to file lawsuits in order to be compensated for decades of lost freedom. A companion bill revised the process to require local governments to match the amount of state compensation in cases where the combined conduct of state prosecutors and local police led to an innocent person being locked up.

City officials seemed to be taken by surprise by that change, which is why they’re having to find a way to come up with millions of dollars for a payment they hadn’t planned on making.

Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org