IGX

A Virginia appeals court declared Thomas Haynesworth an innocent man Tuesday, clearing his name and acknowledging that he spent 27 years behind bars for rapes he did not commit.

It is the first time the state has issued a “writ of actual innocence” in a rape case without the certainty of DNA evidence. Haynesworth, 46, was supported by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and two state prosecutors — all of whom concluded that he was mistakenly identified by a rape victim as he walked to a Richmond market for sweet potatoes and bread one February afternoon in 1984.

“It’s a blessing,” Haynesworth said as he stood with his attorneys and Cuccinelli. “There are a lot of people behind the scenes who believed in me. Twenty-seven years, I never gave up. I kept pushing. I ain’t give up hope.

“I am very happy. Me and my family can finally put this behind us, and I can go on with my life. And I can finally vote.”

The case shows how far Virginia has come in allowing convicts to argue their innocence. Historically, prisoners were barred from introducing new evidence more than three weeks after sentencing, and in the 1990s, then-Attorney General Mary Sue Terry (D) famously said, “Evidence of innocence is irrelevant.” But when DNA testing resulted in hundreds of exonerations nationwide, it prompted Virginia lawmakers to open the door for courts to reconsider guilt based first on genetic evidence and later on other evidence, such as recanted testimony, fingerprints or ballistics.

From 1990-1991 Terry was President of the National Association of Attorneys General and in 1992 she received the Wyman Award, which is the Association’s highest honor.

johno wrote:Swift & sure justice + Death Penalty for rape -> Thomas Haynesworth = Dead man, not the free man that he is today.

Makes you think.

baffled wrote:At least the doctor's not (usually) trying to do it on purpose.

Cases like this are why the death penalty should be abolished. People calling for rapists to be hanged, drug dealers gassed, murderers given the death penalty immediately etc have far more faith in the justice system than is reasonable, IMO.

Slippery slope since there are quite a few people who very well might deserve to die for their crimes...

Turdacious wrote:

baffled wrote:At least the doctor's not (usually) trying to do it on purpose.

Cases like this are why the death penalty should be abolished. People calling for rapists to be hanged, drug dealers gassed, murderers given the death penalty immediately etc have far more faith in the justice system than is reasonable, IMO.

Slippery slope since there are quite a few people who very well might deserve to die for their crimes...

If a person is given the death penalty because of a prosecutor's malfeasance-- that prosecutor should get the death penalty. Balance should pertain.

The ban would come about 11 years after then-Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions after 13 condemned inmates were cleared since Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1977. Ryan, a Republican, cited a Tribune investigative series that examined each of the state's nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence undermined many of them.

Since then, Illinois approved reforms to the capital punishment system, including taping interrogations under a proposal forged by President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois Senate. Only two days before leaving office in January 2003, Ryan commuted the death sentences of 164 prisoners to life in prison. Quinn and his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich, kept the moratorium in place.