Virginia Governor Conditionally Pardons Matthew Rushin, Young Black Man With Autism Who Was Serving 10 Years For A Car Crash

Governor Northam has granted a conditional and partial pardon to Matthew Rushin, who was sentenced to 10 years for a 3-car crash last year that severely injured a senior citizen. With the partial pardon, he should be released sometime next spring.

Rushin suffered from a traumatic brain injury(TBI) in 2017 that left him comatose for several days. Which required rehabilitation in order for him to re-learn life functions, including walking and talking. A pituitary cyst was discovered during evaluation and treatment for the TBI. The single car accident which resulted in the TBI has left him with PTSD. Despite all of these challenges, Matthew graduated with honors from high school, was employed & was an engineering student at Old Dominion University.

In 2019, Rushin was involved in another car accident that put a 72-year-old man, George Cusick, into a coma for nearly two months and reportedly rendered him unable to talk, feed himself or recognize his family members. He pleaded guilty to malicious wounding and felony hit and run. Rushin was sentenced to 50 years (to serve 10) for a nonfatal, unintentional car accident involving no drugs or alcohol. The controversy emerges from the fact that Rushin signed a plea deal which his mother claims he did not understand; Rushin was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome as a child.