PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Reached by telephone Wednesday, Harward said he was disappointed but had not expected any major results. “I appreciate them at least attempting to do something,” he said. "As outlined for the department’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Tuesday and the Forensic Science Board on Wednesday, the review examined more than 200 old reports sampled from many others made by 18 examiners from the forensic laboratories in the eastern and northern parts of the state. The aim was to learn if there were wider systemic problems and to identify any other cases where exculpatory test results were found in the examiner’s notes but not reported by the examiner."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Four year review of old forensic blood typing cases ends after no serious problems identified," by Reporter Frank Green, published by The Richmond Times-Dispatch on July 15, 2020.
GIST: "A four-year review of old blood typing cases prompted by a 1984 wrongful conviction was wrapped up Wednesday by the Virginia Department of Forensic Science after no serious problems or wider issues were identified.
The review was initiated by the department in 2016, shortly after DNA testing exonerated Keith Allen Harward of the 1982 rape of a Newport News woman and the murder of her husband. Those convictions stemmed from erroneous bite mark evidence.
However, Harward’s lawyers said the case file showed that simple blood typing results obtained in 1982 — if reported by the forensic scientist at the time — would have shown Harward could not have been the perpetrator and he would not have been tried, much less convicted.
The forensic serologist in that case, David A. Pomposini, left the department in 2012. Pomposini also performed blood typing in the case of Troy Webb, convicted of a Virginia Beach rape, imprisoned in 1988 and cleared by DNA in 1996, according to Brandon Garrett, a former professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who has studied wrongful convictions.
Pomposini could not be reached for comment and has not responded to requests for comment in the past.
Reached by telephone Wednesday, Harward said he was disappointed but had not expected any major results. “I appreciate them at least attempting to do something,” he said.
As outlined for the department’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Tuesday and the Forensic Science Board on Wednesday, the review examined more than 200 old reports sampled from many others made by 18 examiners from the forensic laboratories in the eastern and northern parts of the state.
The aim was to learn if there were wider systemic problems and to identify any other cases where exculpatory test results were found in the examiner’s notes but not reported by the examiner.
Nine cases with minor issues were found by the reviewers but none where evidence that could have supported innocence were found, said Brad Jenkins, the department’s forensic biology program manager.
Jenkins said that in one case the blood type initially identified by the examiner was changed twice in a case that led to an exoneration.
However, he said that person has already been exonerated by DNA testing and that the blood typing issue was brought out during the trial.
The case was not identified by the department, but was apparently that of Winston Scott, cleared by DNA testing last year of a 1975 rape in Fairfax County.
Out of an abundance of caution, Jenkins said the staff will notify any convicted person in five of the nine cases, although it was not known Wednesday if any of those cases had resulted in convictions.
After Jenkins’ briefing Wednesday, the board of forensic science approved ending the review."
The entire story can be read at:
https://richmond.com/news/virginia/four-year-review-of-old-forensic-blood-typing-cases-ends-after-no-serious-problems-identified/article_44953088-bdd6-5c02-971c-53a1e56d6c6c.html----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read U.S. National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley at the link below: "In the early morning hours of September 14, 1982, a man broke into a home in Newport News, Virginia and beat 30-year-old Jesse Perron to death with a crowbar. Then, over several hours, the attacker repeatedly sexually assaulted Perron’s 22-year-old wife, Teresa, leaving bitemarks during the assaults. Before the attacker fled, he took $14 from Teresa’s purse.
Teresa helped police develop a composite drawing of her attacker. She told investigators that earlier in the day, she had taken her children swimming and when she drove away from the pool, a hitchhiker in a Navy uniform cursed at her. That evening, around 6 p.m., she was hanging clothes in her backyard when she saw a man watching her through the back fence. Teresa could not say that either man was the attacker, but said the man who cursed at her had a voice that sounded like the man who assaulted her.
Teresa and Jess Perron’s home was located near an entry gate to the Newport News Shipyard where the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, a recently commissioned aircraft carrier, was harbored and where Perron worked as a welder. The day after the crime was reported in the media, Donald Wade, a security guard at that gate, told police that he saw a sailor with blood spatter on his uniform enter the shipyard through the gate at about 2:30 a.m.
After being hypnotized, Wade changed the time to around 5 a.m., which was consistent with Teresa’s account of when her attacker left. Teresa also was hypnotized and for the first time said the attacker had three upside down V’s on the sleeve of his uniform and that she “associated” the hitchhiking sailor with her attacker, not just that he sounded the same. In the criminal case that ultimately followed, the prosecution did not disclose to the defense that Teresa and Wade were hypnotized and changed their accounts after hypnosis.
A police tracking dog was brought in and led officers from the Perron home through the entry gate where Wade worked and up to the pier where the Carl Vinson was docked.
Police focused their investigation on the Carl Vinson and over several months bitemark impressions were taken from hundreds of sailors on the Carl Vinson before it finally left the harbor in December 1982 with its crew of more than 1,300 men. Police had no suspects at that time.
In March 1983, 26-year-old Keith Harward, a Naval enlistee who formerly had been stationed on the Carl Vinson, was discharged from the Navy. At about the same time, his girlfriend accused him of assaulting her, including biting her during a fight.
Harward had been among those whose teeth were examined in the immediate aftermath of the investigation, but he had been ruled out as the source of the bitemarks on Teresa by a civilian dental consultant working with the Newport News City medical examiner. When Harward came to court, Teresa was there, but could not identify him as the attacker.
At that point, police asked Harward to submit to a second procedure to obtain a cast of his teeth. The cast was sent to Lowell Levine, then a budding superstar in the fledgling field of bitemark analysis who had gained fame for his testimony linking bitemarks to serial killer Ted Bundy and to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. Levine concluded that Harward was responsible for the bitemarks on Teresa’s body.Police showed a photographic lineup to Wade, who selected Harward’s picture as the man who came through the security gate with a blood-spattered uniform.
On May 16, 1983, police arrested Harward on charges of capital murder, rape, robbery and burglary.
Harward went to trial in Newport News City Circuit Court and in October 1983 he was convicted of capital murder, rape, robbery, and burglary, primarily based on Wade’s identification of him in court and Levine’s conclusion that Harward’s teeth left the bitemarks. Harward was sentenced to life in prison.
On appeal, the Supreme Court of Virginia reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. The court held that under Virginia’ law at that time, a rape could only elevate a homicide to capital murder if the person murdered was also the victim of the rape.
Harward went to trial a second time in March 1986. Levine testified to a “very, very, very, very high degree of probability” that Harward’s teeth made the bitemarks on Teresa’s body. He told the jury that it was a “practical impossibility that someone else would have all these characteristics” that Levine found in the bitemarks.”
Harward testified in his own defense and denied involvement in the crime. He showed that at the time Teresa said she saw a man staring at her in her back yard, Harward was attending a mandatory Naval alcohol and drug abuse program because he had been caught with marijuana on the ship. Harward also testified that the rank insignia on his uniform at the time of the crime consisted of three slashes, not upside the down V’s that appeared on the uniforms of higher-ranking petty officers. Harward also testified that he had a mustache at the time of the crime—but Teresa and Wade said the man they saw was clean-shaven.
Harward was convicted of murder, robbery, burglary, and rape on March 6, 1986. He was again sentenced to life in prison.
In July 2015, the Innocence Project obtained a court order for DNA testing of the physical evidence in the case. The DNA tests excluded Harward as the source of the biological evidence.
The Innocence Project’s investigation also discovered that the crime lab analyst who conducted laboratory analysis of the blood and semen recovered in the case falsely testified that Harward could not be eliminated as the source of the evidence. The analyst’s bench notes of his testing actually excluded Harward. The notes were not disclosed to Harward’s defense attorney at the time of his trials.
The DNA profile that was recovered from the crime scene evidence was identified as that of Jerry L. Crotty, another sailor on the Carl Vinson at the time of these crimes. Crotty died in prison in Ohio in 2006 where he was imprisoned for numerous crimes, including abduction and attempted burglary.
In March 2016, the Innocence Project and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom filed a petition for a writ of actual innocence. In April, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said he believed in Harward’s innocence and joined in the petition. On April 7, the Virginia Supreme Court issued the writ of actual innocence, the convictions were dismissed and Harward was released after spending 33 years in prison.
In 2017, the Virginia Legislature approved payment of $1.6 million to Harward with a lump sum of $309,000 and the remaining $1.2 million to be used to purchase an annuity. Gov. Terry McAuliffee signed the legislation in March 2017.
https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4869---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
