Seeking innocence

The entire Virginia Court of Appeals will hear the exoneration plea of a Richmond man who spent nearly three decades in prison for at least one rape he didn't commit.

A three-judge panel in March heard Thomas Haynesworth's petition for writs of actual innocence, which would vacate abduction and rape convictions from two 1984 sexual assaults. ("Unjustly Served," 3/25)

DNA evidence cleared Haynesworth of another assault, but no biological evidence exists in the remaining two cases. Haynesworth, 46, was paroled in March. Unless the two remaining convictions are overturned, Haynesworth would have to register as a sex offender.

To clear Haynesworth, the law says attorneys must show that "no rational trier of fact could have found proof beyond a reasonable doubt based upon the newly discovered evidence" that he is innocent.

Victims identified Haynesworth as their attacker in both of the cases, but so did the victim in the case in which DNA evidence has proven he was not the rapist. Prosecutors now know at least one of the attacks was the work of Leon Davis Jr., who is serving life for multiple rapes.

The judges' order asks what, if any, newly discovered nonbiological evidence conclusively establishes that Davis also committed the two assaults before the court. Haynesworth's lawyers were given 21 days to respond with a brief and Cuccinelli's office 14 days after that to respond.

The full court of appeals informed Cuccinelli and Haynesworth last week that it would take up the case, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It asked if the attorney general's position that Haynesworth did not commit these crimes was "a concession of fact or a confession of error?"

Cuccinelli personally offered his apologies to Haynesworth for the failure of Virginia's justice system in March. In an interview with The Washington Post, Cuccinelli said, "It almost brings me to tears to think of the 27 years. As I said to him, 'I'm sorry doesn't do it, on behalf of the people of Virginia.' But there isn't much more. I can't get those years back."

Haynesworth and the attorney general's office declined to comment, aside from confirming that they are preparing for a hearing some time in the fall. Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project, said he was confident Haynesworth would win his innocence. "We are very confident that in a case where both commonwealth's attorneys and the state attorney general support his writ of actual innocence because they all believe that Thomas is innocent we will prevail in the court of appeals."

According to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project website, after extensive review "it became clear that the two remaining convictions matched the very distinctive modus operandi of Davis." In late 2010, Haynesworth took and passed two polygraph tests about the 1984 attacks.

Gov. Bob McDonnell asked the Virginia Parole Board to review Haynesworth's case and consider granting him parole. On March 18th, the Board granted Haynesworth parole, and McDonnell said that if his lawyers sought a pardon, he would consider granting it. Three days later, Haynesworth was released. He was the first Virginia inmate to ever be granted a write of actual innocence because of DNA evidence.

While he's on parole, Haynesworth is working as an office technician in the mailroom of the Office of the Attorney General, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. In a memo to staff members, Brian Gottstein, Cuccinelli's spokesperson, wrote,

"In the OAG, we have an obligation to see that justice is done in every case, regardless of which side of the courtroom that justice may fall. Here, unlike the vast majority of cases handled by this office, our duty was not to defend a defendant's conviction, but to prove his innocence. Justice demanded it.

And although we can never restore the 27 years of freedom that Thomas lost, we in this office - as representatives of the commonwealth - have an opportunity to give something back to him: a job and a chance to start rebuilding his life."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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