Friday 8 April 2016

Shocking!!! Man freed after 33years in prison for crimes he didn't commit (Photo)

A man who spent 33 years in prison for crimes authorities now say he didn't commit, was freed on Friday.

As Keith Harward, 60, walked into the Virginia sun the fact that his parents weren't there to see him become a free man weighed heavily on his mind.

'That's the worst part of this,' said Harward, who choked back tears as he spoke about his parents, who both died while he was wrongfully imprisoned. 'I'll never get that back.'

Harward was released from the Nottoway Correctional Center on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court agreed that DNA evidence proves he's innocent of the 1982 killing of Jesse Perron and the rape of his wife in Newport News.

Attorney General Mark Herring's office said in addition to throwing out his conviction, the state has also removed Harward's name from the state's sex-offender registry. Harward is pictured with former girlfriend Gladys Bates
Harward before taking to prison

He was a sailor on the USS Carl Vinson, which was stationed at the shipyard close to the victims' home at the time of the crime.

A security guard identified Harward as the man he saw entering the shipyard wearing a bloody uniform, but the woman never identified him as her attacker.

The prosecution's case relied heavily on the testimony of two experts who testified that his teeth matched bite marks on the woman's leg. No other physical evidence linked Harward to the crime.

The Innocence Project got involved in Harward's case about two years ago and pushed for DNA tests, which failed to identify Harward's genetic profile in sperm left at the crime scene.

The DNA matched that of one of Harward's former shipmate's, Jerry L Crotty, who died in an Ohio prison in June 2006, where he was serving a sentence for abduction.

Keith Allen Harward (pictured) was released from the Nottoway Correctional Center on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court agreed that DNA evidence proves he's innocent of the 1982 killing of Jesse Perron and the rape of his wife in Newport News

The reliability of bite-mark evidence has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

'We've learned nothing if we continue to use this evidence even though we know it has no basis in science,' said Dana Delger, an attorney with the Innocence Project.

Harward initially faced the death penalty, but a loophole in the law caused his capital murder conviction to be overturned in 1985, said Olga Akselrod, another Innocence Project attorney.

read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3530656/Man-freed-THREE-DECADES-Virginia-prison-crimes-authorities-say-didn-t-commit.html

credit: dailymail

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