Gov. Warner Orders DNA Testing of Old Cases to Determine and Free the Innocent
The Washington Post reports that two more Virginia inmates convicted of rape, one of whom served 20 years before being released, have been determined to be factually innocent based on new DNA testing. The testing in one of the cases produced a "cold hit" to the true perpetrators.
The revelations are the result of modern-day testing Warner ordered more than a year ago of biological samples that had been collected in thousands of violent criminal cases dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Those samples were collected before leaps in the forensic science.
Now that those tests have revealed that two more innocent men were jailed, Warner is ordering all of the files and others in state custody-- about 660 boxes that contain thousands of cases from 1973 through 1988 -- to be examined for cases that can be retested using the latest DNA technology.
The testing was conducted during a random sample review of 31 cases purusant to an order issued by Gov. Warner last year. In other words, it weren't requested by the inmates, who had since served their time and been released. Kudos to Governor Warner for ordering testing on more cases today.
In his statement released this afternoon, Gov. Warner says it's the morally correct thing to do:
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