Community | February 05, 2011 | 19 comments

Innocence Project, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP Ask Virginia Appeals Court to Exonerate a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit

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treewolf39
Attorney General and Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth Attorneys Support His Claim of Innocence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 3, 2011
The Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP is filing legal papers before the Virginia Court of Appeals today asking the court to exonerate a Richmond man who has been incarcerated nearly 27 years for three rapes that DNA and other evidence now show were committed by the notorious “Black Ninja” rapist. After an extensive investigation that included DNA testing, an exhaustive review of the evidence and polygraph tests, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Wade Kizer are both calling for Mr. Haynesworth’s exoneration and return to freedom. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has also announced that he is supporting the writ seeking a declaration of innocence.

“This a tragic miscarriage of justice that occurred because law enforcement let the pressure of making an arrest in high profile crimes get in the way of finding the real perpetrator,” said Shawn Armbrust, director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. “What’s particularly upsetting in this case is that after our client was arrested and behind bars, rapes matching the same MO continued, yet it didn’t occur to anyone that our client could have been innocent even though he insisted on his innocence throughout four trials.”

Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law, added, “Forty years of social science research—much of it available when these crimes occurred—has concluded that identifications are often unreliable, especially in cross racial crimes. We hope this case will spur the legislature to demand that all departments across the state enact formal policies that are designed to prevent misidentification. ”

Between January 3 and February 1, 1984, five white women were the victims of rapes or attempted rapes by a young black male in the East End of Richmond, a small area overlapping both the City of Richmond and Henrico County. On February 5, 1984, Thomas Haynesworth, an 18-year-old Richmond resident with no prior record, was arrested after one of the victims identified him. The other four victims later picked his photo out of a photo array. Haynesworth was eventually convicted for crimes that occurred on January 3, 30 and February 1, 1984 and sentenced to 36 years in prison. He was acquitted of the crime that occurred on January 21, and the charges were dropped in a January 27 incident.

Rapes in the same general area continued throughout 1984 after Haynesworth was arrested, with more than 10 young white women being attacked by a young black male who began to refer to himself to his victims as the “Black Ninja.” On December 19, police arrested Leon Davis, who was charged with about a dozen rapes that took place during the last nine months of 1984. Davis was eventually convicted of at least three of those crimes and sentenced to multiple life terms.

After five men were exonerated through DNA testing of biological evidence in the case files of the Department of Forensic Science, Gov. Mark Warner ordered a review of all the cases between 1973 and 1988 where there was evidence suitable for DNA testing. As a result of this review, it was discovered that the semen recovered from the victim of Haynesworth’s January 3 rape conviction matched Davis, not Haynesworth.
More at the link......http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Innocence_Project_MidAtlantic_Innocence_...
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19 comments // Innocence Project, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP Ask Virginia Appeals Court to Exonerate a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit

  • KSirys
    • +2
      KSirys  
    • I hope they give him millions for their mistake... even though it doesn't change the horrors this man has suffer. I wish him the best and hope he starts fresh and can remove himself from the prison life he has endure.

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
  • KSirys
  • MotherForTruth
    • +3
      MotherForTruth  
    • Another innocent man served long prison sentence for the crime he did not commit. American justice system is broken and no one cares to fix it.

    • 1 year ago
  • dannym2
  • freecrack
    • +3
      freecrack  
    • dannym2:

      cuz the just liberty our founders held in such high regards, has been slowly replaced by orwellian tyrany.executed so well, we are actualy content to live this way.its no egypt, or iran, but it is what it is none the less.

    • 1 year ago
  • dannym2
  • freecrack
    • +3
      freecrack  
    • dannym2:

      we as the citizenry i think are all on the same page.but that point, that is being missed, is the very example of how far we have strayed in our view of what is right vs wrong in our process of functioning.

      id like to think the fuckers who set this guy up to take the fall would get thier come uppance, but i doubt it.as a system that allows them to sell the future of an innocent man, is a system geared towards thier corrupt ends over justice.

      he could end up getting a daily talk show on a major network, and still despite reminding us every day of this, they still wouldnt get caught.as the system is thier play thing.it is sold as our justice, but it is thier rube goldberg machine, that confuses us in function just enough to keep them free to continue.

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
    • +1
      treewolf39  
    • freecrack:

      Oh Freecrack, don't be such a pessimist. Its bad, the lack of real justice, but we can continue to share and point out the injustice and raise our children differently. The world does not even have a hundred years, of this bullshit, left to be exploited. We need to start a global justice system that deals with ALL human right violations. I like to think big and much better.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
    • +1
      freecrack  
    • treewolf39:

      i can get behind that, but the differences between cultures, and the inherent nature of xenophobia means we must first create that perfect system before sharing it with anyone else.other wise it is just trading one flawed methodology for another one.and as democracy has shown, even though it is clearly better than say an autocracy, those who recognize it is also flawed will reject it to the death.in favor of self determination.

      we need to keep going forward domesticaly to a point of perfection before we begin to share our methodology with other civilizations.with things such as our technology and medicine for instance, they are readily accepted as they are finished products that self prove thier worth.we need to get to that place with our human rights perspective too, otherwise what we offer will be rebuffed and create a sense of oppression.

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
    • +1
      treewolf39  
    • freecrack:

      You make some fine points! Laws, all laws need to be reviewed to make sure that a crime is actually being committed. Using drugs should not be criminal. Poisoning someone with drugs should be. Our system IS the driving force of madness that the world is rejecting because it has become almost completely hypocritical. Money buys Justice or freedom from justice and that is NOT just.

    • 1 year ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • MotherForTruth:

      i can theorize as to what would be the markers of a perfect system, but damn if i have a clue what it actualy would be or how to get there.
      maybe i have a bizzare view of us, but i think that is what we are as the "great experiment".the quest for a better tomorrow infinitely.until we reach perfection in governance.wich is probably unattainable, but still a worthy endevour.

      when we have all of our domestic issues under control, then we can start sharing.as the burden of proof that wuld be upon us is inherently proven.until then we are just being dicks when supposing our way is better than any other.

    • 1 year ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • MotherForTruth:

      aww thats nice.cuz i think it has been a long long while since you and i have authenticaly agreed on anything lol.not that we are in constant disagreement, but its been a bit since we had a common shared view.
      gotta love current some times.

    • 1 year ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • +2
      MotherForTruth  
    • freecrack:

      It is nice that we agree. I enjoy intelligent discussions. Critical thinking and reasoning helps learn from one another. I find it annoying when people on current start personal attacks when their opinion is not accepted.

    • 1 year ago
  • freecrack
    • +2
      freecrack  
    • MotherForTruth:

      its cuz your a poopy head, so there :)

      it happens on the heated topics but i like that aside from the trolls, we calm down and in theend respect one another mostly.i mean i only hate a couple of folks on here and would like to think only a few hate me as well.

    • 1 year ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • freecrack
    • +1
      freecrack  
    • MotherForTruth:

      cuz i wanted to devolve into name calling as a humoruos response to you acknowledgement of how counter productive it is.and i figured poopy head was a way to do it with out actualy offending, and it has a funny ring to it.

    • 1 year ago
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