The VLW Blog

The Virginia Department Forensic Science will begin providing familial DNA searches for state law enforcement agencies, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced today. The agency has a database of more than 330,000 profiles that can be tested against DNA material from crime scenes. If a typical search does not produce a match, a familial search may identify [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia has issued its first writ of actual innocence and cleared Thomas Edward Haynesworth of a 25-year-old rape. Haynesworth was convicted of two rapes, one in Richmond and one in Henrico County, at the same general time that a notorious serial rapist known as the Black Ninja was assaulting about a [...]

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The folks in charge of notifying convicts of possible DNA evidence related to their cases have added some additional dates for training of lawyers volunteering to help. The updated schedule, which now includes training sessions in McLean and Blacksburg, is here.  2 MCLE credits are available for participation in the training. -Peter Vieth

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A man serving a 74 year sentence for rape could be cleared in the latest non-match DNA case to emerge from old forensic files. Recent testing did not find Thomas E. Haynesworth’s DNA profile in evidence left at the scene of rape in Richmond for which he was convicted, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. But testing [...]

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Two more old criminal cases are being scrutinized after DNA tests suggest the possibility of wrongful convictions. In 2005, after biological evidence cleared five men in decades-old rape convictions, then-Gov. Mark R. Warner ordered that DNA testing be conducted on more than 500,000 old forensic case files. Last week, it was disclosed that DNA testing [...]

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The Virginia Forensic Science Board has decided against turning to private attorneys for help in locating and notifying felons of old biological evidence in their cases that could be retested, the AP reports. Board members reportedly decided instead to make the notification by certified letter because of questions of the legality of involving nongovernment entities [...]

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The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has obtained its 5,000th hit to Virginia’s Offender DNA Databank, according to a news release from the governor’s office. A “hit” occurs when a DNA profile developed from any biological fluid, tissue, or hair recovered from a crime scene is matched to a DNA profile from an individual or [...]

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The Los Angeles Times reports on a study that suggests that matches of DNA profiles may be more common than the one in more than 100 billion projected by the FBI and other crime labs. The FBI responds that it is the methodology of the study itself that is flawed, and The Times says the [...]

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The New York Times Magazine to be published Sunday has an extended article questioning the validity of the convictions of four sailors who confessed to the rape and murder of a woman in Norfolk in 1997. The story by free-lance writer Alan Berlow cites inconsistencies between the confessions and the physical evidence and among the [...]

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A defendant who submits to a DNA mouth swab in one case can’t prevent prosecutors from using it to solve a cold case, according to a new decision from the Virginia Court of Appeals. In Pharr v. Commonwealth (VLW 007-7-239), the court said that use of the DNA didn’t violate the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. [...]

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