Postconviction DNA Testing Assistance Program Exonerations
Program Awards
The Justice for All Act of 2004 authorized the establishment of the Kirk Bloodsworth Postconviction DNA Testing Grant Program. The program provides funding to states to help defray the costs associated with postconviction DNA testing.[1] States may use funds in cases that involve violent felony offenses (as defined by state law) in which actual innocence might be demonstrated. Funds may be used to review such postconviction cases and to locate and analyze biological evidence associated with these cases.
Though not the sole measure of program success, as a result of NIJ's funding and the hard work of the grantees, to date, 10 exonerations have been achieved through DNA testing. An 11th exoneration, attributed to the program, was not directly the result of DNA testing, but was a byproduct of NIJ-funded DNA testing. Information about each of the exonerations follows below.
| Awardee Jurisdiction | Exoneree and Description |
|---|---|
| Colorado Attorney General, 2009-DN-BX-K242 | Exoneree: Robert Dewey On May 1, 2012, Robert Dewey was released from prison after serving nearly 18 years for a rape and murder he did not commit. In 1996, Dewey was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was exonerated as a result of new DNA testing by Colorado’s Justice Review Project, which is supported through funding provided by NIJ to the Colorado Attorney General. |
| Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, 2008-DN-BX-K184 | Exoneree: Kerry Porter On December 19, 2011, Kerry Porter was released from prison after serving 13 years for a murder he did not commit. Mr. Porter was sentenced to 60 years for the 1996 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend’s husband despite there being no physical evidence linking Mr. Porter to the crime. DNA testing was not readily available and reliable at the time of Mr. Porter’s trial, so the Kentucky Innocence Project, which receives funding from NIJ through the award to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, asked for testing to be completed on a homemade silencer found at the crime scene. In 2011, DNA analysts were able to identify a male and female DNA profile from the silencer. Mr. Porter’s DNA was excluded as being a contributor. |
| State of North Carolina, Innocence Inquiry Commission, 2009-DN-BX-K247 | Exonerees: Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson On September 22, 2011, Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson were freed and found innocent of any involvement in the 2000 murder of Walter Bowman. The two men maintained their innocence throughout their incarceration, but had pled guilty to second-degree murder charges to avoid the death penalty or life in prison. In 2003, after the defendants had entered pleas, a federal inmate confessed to the homicide and named two accomplices. Tests on DNA from the crime scene generated a DNA profile. Uploading the profile to CODIS resulted in a match to one of the named accomplices and excluded both Mr. Kagonyera and Mr. Wilcoxson. |
| Texas Office of the Governor, Criminal Justice Division, 2008-DN-BX-K169 | Exoneree: Johnny Pinchback On May 12, 2011, the Innocence Project of Texas, through funding provided to the Texas Office of the Governor by NIJ, secured the release of Johnny Pinchback. Mr. Pinchback was incarcerated for more than 26 years for two aggravated sexual assaults that he did not commit. He was proven innocent via the DNA testing of rape kit evidence obtained from one of the victims shortly after her assault. |
| Virginia Department of Forensic Science, 2008-DN-BX-K128 | Exonerees: Thomas Edward Haynesworth; Calvin Cunningham On March 21, 2011, Mr. Haynesworth was released on parole after serving 27 years in prison for crimes that authorities had come to believe he did not commit. Thomas Edward Haynesworth was arrested for rape in February 1984 and subsequently identified by a total of five women as their assailant in a series of sexual assaults in the city of Richmond and the neighboring county of Henrico. He was convicted in three attacks, acquitted in one, and one case was not prosecuted. DNA testing, funded through an NIJ grant, was performed on biological evidence that was preserved in an old laboratory case file relating to one of his Richmond convictions. The results eliminated Mr. Haynesworth as the source of DNA profiles identified on that evidence, and indicated the presence of DNA consistent with the profile of another convicted rapist. In September 2009, Mr. Haynesworth became the first person exonerated by the Virginia Supreme Court in a writ of actual innocence based on new DNA evidence in that case. Calvin Cunningham was convicted of rape in Newport News in May 1981. DNA testing completed in 2010 under the award eliminated Mr. Cunningham as a contributor of the DNA profiles found on evidence preserved in the old forensic laboratory case file. On April 12, 2011, Calvin Wayne Cunningham was exonerated by the Virginia Supreme Court, which granted his petition for Writ of Actual Innocence. |
| Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, 2008-DN-BX-K145 | Exoneree: John Watkins On December 16, 2010, John Watkins was released from custody after serving 7.5 years in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit. No semen or sperm was detected on the rape kit items, and thus, in 2003, no DNA testing was conducted on this evidence. Mr. Watkins accepted a plea offer of 14 years for the sexual assault and another non-violent felony to avoid a potential life in prison sentence. Using NIJ funds awarded to the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, the Arizona Justice Project and Arizona Attorney General’s Office filed a joint motion for Y-STR DNA testing. The DNA results conclusively excluded Watkins as the donor of the male DNA found on the evidence items. |
| Washington Department of Commerce, 2008-DN-BX-K127 | Exonerees: Larry Davis and Alan Northrop On July 14, 2010, Larry Davis and Alan Northrop were exonerated after serving 17 years in prison. Mr. Northrop and Mr. Davis were convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993 in La Center, Washington. The Innocence Project NW Clinic was granted a request to test crime scene evidence using new DNA technology. The Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory, using NIJ funding, conducted the DNA testing from some samples in the cases and outsourced other samples to a private laboratory. These tests excluded Mr. Northrop and Mr. Davis as contributors of the DNA profiles found on the victim. |
| Non-DNA Exoneration | |
| Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, 2008-DN-BX-K184 | Exoneree: Michael VonAllmen Michael VonAllmen served 11 years of a 35-year sentence for rape, sodomy and robbery of a 22-year old woman. After reading an article discussing the receipt of Postconviction DNA Testing Assistance funds by the Kentucky Innocence Project (through the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet), Mr. VonAllmen contacted the Kentucky Innocence Project for assistance, despite the fact that he had been on parole for nearly 10 years. The DNA analysis produced inconclusive results. However, during the reinvestigation, the Kentucky Innocence Project discovered new evidence supporting Mr. VonAllmen’s claim of innocence. A Jefferson County judge vacated Mr. VonAllmen’s conviction, stating that the evidence shows he did not commit the crimes. |
Note
[1] Funding is available to states as well as to the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana islands.
Date Modified: October 2, 2012
