The Washington Post has a welcome editorial today, Lessons for Virginia Justice on why Virginia should change its current rule that except for cases with biological evidence, challenges to convictions in criminal cases must be raised within 21 days:

"As uncomfortable as it is to acknowledge, certainty in criminal cases is a mirage. People confess falsely. Even where there seems to be no doubt, there is doubt. The total picture created by evidence is a constantly shifting mosaic. So the system must be open to new evidence whenever it appears -- as New York's system was here. In New York, the rules allowed prosecutors to do the right thing, even more than a decade after the conviction. In Virginia, by contrast, newly discovered evidence is -- with a narrow exception for biological material -- never admissible more than 21 days after a conviction. The Virginia Supreme Court is now considering a change in this rule. It is long overdue. Allowing the evidentiary mosaic to freeze at any particular moment only guarantees that injustices become irremediable."