Thursday, April 7, 2016

Keith Allen Harward: Virginia: The local police were extremely proud of their role in solving what became commonly known in Virginia as the "bite-mark case. Now, after Harward has been imprisoned as a rapist murderer for 30 years, the State acknowledges his innocence and is supporting his petition for a writ of actual innocence; "No one now at the Newport News Police Department was involved in the case, which was prosecuted during Commonwealth's Attorney Willard Robinson's lengthy tenure. Robinson has since died, as has the lead detective in the case, C.D. “Chuck” Spinner. The crime became known as “the bite mark case,” and it was mentioned prominently in Daily Press articles marking Spinner's retirement, and then his death. A decorated detective, Spinner told reporters he believed Harward would have killed again had he not been caught. He had dental impressions from the case bronzed and kept them. “He was proud of that case,” Newport News Capt. Marvin Evans told the Daily Press upon Spinner's death in 2003. The Warwick Kiwanis Club named Spinner outstanding police officer for his work on the case, which was believed to be the first capital conviction in Virginia based on bite mark evidence taken from a survivor. Newport News police spokesman Lou Thurston said Wednesday he doesn't believe the department uses bite marks any more to make cases. Moran said the state crime lab doesn't use them because “it just doesn't achieve the level of certification … that would justify our Department of Forensic Science to use it.” Lasris called it “simply bogus science.” Reporter Travis Fain, The Daily News. (Must, Must Read. HL);


STORY: "State: Innocent man served 30 years in Newport News 'bite mark case," by reporter Travis Fain,  published by the Daily News on April 7, 2016.

PHOTO CAPTION:  "Keith Allen Harward is charged with murdering a Newport News man. Harward, 60, is serving life in prison plus 65 years. DNA tests done within the last year point instead to his former shipmate aboard the USS Carl Vinson, a man who died 10 years ago in an Ohio prison."

GIST: "A man twice convicted of rape and murder in a 1980s Newport News case that turned on bite mark comparisons has been exonerated by DNA evidence, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Wednesday. Keith Allen Harward, 60, is serving life in prison plus 65 years. DNA tests done within the last year point instead to his former shipmate aboard the USS Carl Vinson, a man who died 10 years ago in an Ohio prison. “It is clear that Keith Harward is innocent,” Herring said. Herring's office, along with the Newport News Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, has backed a writ of actual innocence for Harward, which would have to be granted by the Virginia Supreme Court. Gov. Terry McAuliffe's administration is pursuing a potential pardon in addition to the writ, but that investigation is just underway.........(Attorney General) Herring said he spoke to a living victim in the case Wednesday but declined to go into detail. A man sneaked into the woman's bedroom in 1982 and killed her husband with a crowbar, according to a case summary that appears in a Wednesday court filing from the attorney general. He then raped her repeatedly, threatening to “get” her three sleeping children if she didn't do as he said. The attacker left visible bite marks on her thighs and calves, and those marks were Harward's downfall. A Newport News shipyard security guard reported seeing a sailor with a Carl Vinson badge and E-3 rank insignia enter the 50th Street gate early on the morning of the murder, wearing a uniform that seemed to be splattered in blood, court records state. The victims' home was not far from the gate. But the victim never identified her attacker. She described a clean-shaven man, when Harward had a mustache, the attorney general's rundown states. Teeth marks lead to Harward's conviction: In 1983, Harward appeared in court after being involved in an altercation with a woman he was accused of biting. Later, a New York dentist matched Harward's teeth to marks on the victim in the 1982 assault. His attorney at the time, Roy Lasris, said Wednesday that the marks indeed looked close. Then, the shipyard security guard picked Harward out of a photo lineup. Two forensic odontologists testified that Harward left the bite marks on the victim's legs. “They put two and two together and only got three,” Lasris said Wednesday. The initial conviction was thrown out on a technicality. A second jury convicted Harward in 1986 on charges of first-degree murder, rape, forcible sodomy and robbery. ‘Proud of that case': No one now at the Newport News Police Department was involved in the case, which was prosecuted during Commonwealth's Attorney Willard Robinson's lengthy tenure. Robinson has since died, as has the lead detective in the case, C.D. “Chuck” Spinner. The crime became known as “the bite mark case,” and it was mentioned prominently in Daily Press articles marking Spinner's retirement, and then his death. A decorated detective, Spinner told reporters he believed Harward would have killed again had he not been caught. He had dental impressions from the case bronzed and kept them. “He was proud of that case,” Newport News Capt. Marvin Evans told the Daily Press upon Spinner's death in 2003. The Warwick Kiwanis Club named Spinner outstanding police officer for his work on the case, which was believed to be the first capital conviction in Virginia based on bite mark evidence taken from a survivor. Newport News police spokesman Lou Thurston said Wednesday he doesn't believe the department uses bite marks any more to make cases. Moran said the state crime lab doesn't use them because “it just doesn't achieve the level of certification … that would justify our Department of Forensic Science to use it.” Lasris called it “simply bogus science.”

The entire story can be found at: 

http://www.dailypress.com/news/crime/dp-nws-keith-allen-harward-20160406-story.html
  
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.