Michael McAlister is serving a 35 year prison sentence in Virginia for attempted rape. He says he is innocent. The prosecutor and detective in his case agree. But he can't get a hearing. Why? Because Virginia doesn't allow claims of innocence based on new evidence to be made more than 21 days after sentencing unless the claim is based on DNA. There is no DNA in McAlister's case.

"Ninety percent of convictions don't involve biological evidence, but the same mistakes happen," said McAlister's attorney, Christopher Amolsch. "Mr. McAlister is a prime example of why we need to go back in front of a judge to prove claims of actual innocence."

McAlister's case and recent DNA exonerations have cast a spotlight on an emerging criminal justice issue: questionable or even faulty eyewitness identifications. In the 17 years McAlister has been in prison, DNA testing has cleared 127 people nationwide and seven in Virginia. Mistaken eyewitness testimony was to blame for most of the errors.

Julius Ruffin spent 21 years in a Virginia prison in a rape cape. Marvin Anderson served 15 years in another Virginia rape case. Bernard Webster was behind bars in Maryland for 20 years. In each case, DNA set the wrongly convicted men free; mistaken eyewitness testimony was what got them convicted.

This month, a Massachusetts man who spent 19 years in prison in a series of sexual assaults was cleared by DNA. Three women had identified him as their attacker.

Unless the Governor grants McAllister's petition for clemency, he will stay in jail.