Senator Webb... Corruption in the Courts Causes Crisis in Jails

Corruption in the Courts

Causes Crisis

in American Jails,

and

Crisis in our Families!

Contact Senator Webb to ask him to ask Governor Kaine to PARDON

Jeff Washington !

http://webb.senate.gov/contact/http://webb.senate.gov/contact/

FBI Quits search for Justice, Ignored Senator Webb 3 times

Letter to Former Governor Wilder who Pardoned Walter Snyder, 7 years Falsely Jailed, framed by Alexandria Police

Click on the Image of the Letter to Enlarge for Ease of Reading.

THE SMOKING GUN: Forensic Misconduct by Winchester Police, Legal Malpractice by Prosecutor and Defense Attorney

Please CLICK on the image to enlarge it so you may more easily read and study the two Forensic Laboratory Test Results that show Jeffery Washington did NOT have ANY Gun Shot Residue, and PROSECUTION WITNESS John Doleman DID HAVE GUN SHOT RESIDUE in 7 of 10 categories still many months later.

Why did Winchester Police "Investigator" Sobonya abort the rest of the tests of the other 7 suspects on 8 September 1994 after the murder on 16 August 1994, after he was told of NEGATIVE Gun Shot Residue Test on Jeffery Franklin Washington by the Virginia State Forensic Lab in Richmond?

Maybe to prevent the real gunman from being shown from one of the other seven suspects in the timely first test?

Why did "Investigator" Sobonya EXCLUDE the Gun Shot Residue Kit from Washington on the second test done by the contracted Private Forensic Laboratory, Micron, inc. of Wilmington, Delaware?

Maybe to undermine the test from being comprehensive of all eight suspects, and therefore to give the Prosecutor the "legal-ese" or "lawyer-language" of the test being "inconclusive"?

Why did the prosecutor, Commonwealth Attorney Paul Thomson, seeing this very CLEAR Forensic Testing Evidence not change his primary or even ONLY suspect to John Paul Doleman?

Why did Winchester prosecutor Paul Thomson join the Winchester Police in the "Frame-Up" of the NOT GUILTY Jeffery Franklin Washington?

Might the fact that John Paul Doleman was a "blood relative" to the wife of the OTHER Police Detective in this case, James Bailous, have any bearing on why Doleman was NOT prosecuted as the Gunman of murder victim Carlos Marshall?

Why would any competent Defense Attorney not see he could create in the minds of a JURY the fact there is at least some PROBABLE DOUBT that his client Jeffery Franklin Washington was NOT THE GUNMAN because the Forensic Tests proved he did NOT fire any gun, and the Forensic Tests showed that PROSECUTION WITNESS John Doleman did fire a gun, very likely the murder weapon?

Why did the Defense Attorney accept, even "parrot" the Prosecution lawyer language that the Gun Shot Residue tests by recognized Forensic Labs were "inconclusive"?

Why instead did the Defense Attorney for first two days of the JURY TRIAL "brow-beat" his client Jeffery Franklin Washington and his mother Christine and his father Franklin to force the family to accept an Alford Plea, that is NOT GUILTY, yet accept a prison sentence rather suffer a Death Sentence?

What would YOU do if you saw your Defense Attorney abandon YOU?

Might you ALSO take an Alford Plea, and PRAY that someday an honest attorney and a fair justice system would properly process your Appeal, your appeal for Liberty and Justice?

Failing the justice system working properly to advance the cause of Justice, now the ONLY HOPE FOR JUSTICE is a PARDON from the Governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine !

At Winchester Hob-Nob, Letter to Governor Kaine handed to Atty Gen Bob McDonnell, case discussed with Senator Vogel

At the Friday night Winchester Hob-Nob in the Valley at the new Shenandoah University Health Sciences building, the Patriots' Day Letter to Governor Kaine handed to Atty Gen Bob McDonnell, asking the Attorney General to "weigh in" to ask Governor Tim Kaine to grant an Absolute Pardon to Army Veteran Jeffery Franklin Washington on Constitution Day, Wednesday, 17 September 2008, in the Virginia Capitol designed by Jefferson, in front of the statue of George Washington.

What a great way to honor a great day, to return Liberty on Constitution Day to an Army Veteran falsely jailed for 14 years!

Washington Liberty on Constitution Day, by Gov. Kaine Pardon, Patrick Henry principles and Governor Gilmore...

Washington Liberty on Constitution Day, by Governor Kaine Pardon?

What did Governor Wilder do?

What would Governor Patrick Henry do?

Washington College of Law INNOCENCE PROJECT intake form...

NOTE: "Served 20 years in Maryland prison due to forensic misconduct."

Jeff Washington has served 14 years in Virginia due to forensic misconduct by Winchester Police Detective David Sobonya, aided and abetted by prosecutor Paul Thomson, and defense attorney, John Prosser.

On Wednesday, 10 September 2008, the 19 page Intake Form was completed and hand delivered to the INNOCENCE PROJECT of the Mid-Atlantic at the Washington College of Law of American University, in Washington, D.C.

This is one page of the document.

CLICK on the image to enlarge to make it easier to read.

If you would like a PDF copy of this document, please email your request to: JeffWashington@NoJuryNoJustice.US.

Thank you.

Pardon Letter to Secretary of the Commonwealth Hanley for Gov. Kaine

In the September 5th Northern Virginia Daily article by Alex Bridges, Governor Kaine's spokesman was quoted:

Any letter seeking a pardon from the governor would have to go to the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, according to Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey. Earlier this week, Hickey said the office had not received the letter.


OK, so here is the letter to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, hand delivered to the 4th Floor reception area in the Patrick Henry Building, into the hand of Mrs. Patricia Tucker at about 3:20 pm, on Tuesday, 9 September 2008.

Mrs. Tucker said she no longer handles pardons, that Gregg Hennock (?sp) handles them now.

Reporter Manship said, "Oh I recognize that name, it was on your voice mail message when I called the phone number from the website. I called you and called him, last Friday, but I have not received a call-back from either of you... yet."

Reporter Manship also said, "Please give this copy to Mr. Hennock, and this copy to Secretary of the Commonwealth Katherine Hanley, and this copy I will deliver myself to the Governor's office. Thank you."

Pardon Letter to Secretary of the Commonwealth Hanley for Gov. Kaine, pages 2-4

Governor Kaine Press Release on More EFFICIENT Virginia Government... Due Process in Courts not always "Efficient", but a proper Pardon is Efficient..

Northern Virginia Daily reports on Pardon request to Gov. Kaine

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/301609655733617.bsp

Friday, September 5, 2008
Father receives support in quest to have son freed

Advocate of defendant in 1994 slaying sends letter to Kaine seeking pardon

By Alex Bridges -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — After years of fighting his son's murder conviction alone, Franklin Washington may now have allies.

James Renwick Manship Sr. sent a letter this week to the office of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine seeking a pardon for Jeffrey Washington, who is serving a 70-year prison sentence for the 1994 shooting death of Carlos Marshall in Winchester.

In his letter, Manship states he learned about Washington's case after seeing the father ask a judge on Aug. 22 to recuse himself from hearing a lawsuit filed against the court reporter employed during his son's trial.

... (continued)

In the request, Manship cites former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's pardoning of Walter Snyder when DNA evidence cleared him of a rape for which he served seven years in prison.

Manship now wants Kaine to follow Wilder's example.

"I ask you to be wise like Wilder and pardon [Jeff] Washington, a man wrongly accused who maintains his innocence and only under duress by his defense attorney, accepted an Alford plea," Manship states.

... (continued)

RICO Violations Letter to U.S. Attorney for Western District of Virginia

The United States Attorney's Office
Western District of Virginia

US Attorney














Assistant US Attorneys

Might this man's background be good for him to lead the investigation into the Racketeering and Influenced Corrupt Organizations law violations by former Commonwealth Attorney Paul Thomson, Winchester Police Detectives David Sobonya and James Bailous, and possibly also former Defense Attorney, now Circuit Court judge John Prosser?

Harrisonburg, Virginia
Jeb Terrien
Assistant United States Attorney
Mr. Terrien graduated with a B.S. in History from the University of Virginia in 1994. He graduated cum laude from Tulane University Law School, receiving his J.D. in 1997, where he served as a senior board member of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal.

From 1998 to 2004 he prosecuted violations of Virginia criminal law, serving as both an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and Assistant Attorney General. He began his career as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Accomack County, Virginia, then worked for the Virginia Attorney General in the Financial Investigations and Money Laundering Unit in Richmond. From 2002 to 2004 he operated the Regional Drug Prosecutor’s office that covered Halifax, Charlotte, and Campbell counties and also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney.

In 2004 he was sworn in as an Assistant United States Attorney and worked in the Northern District of West Virginia, and the Southern District of Ohio before coming to the Western District of Virginia in 2008.

Washington "Frame-Up" Evidence and News Reports, Read, Analyzed, Coded & Catalogued...

Over 180 pages of Police Notes, Forensic Laboratory Reports, News Articles and other documents were read, analyzed for consistencies and discrepancies, coded page by page, and catalogued for reference and recall.

The story told by this detailed study of the handling of this case by the Winchester Police Detectives David Sobonya and James Bailous, and prosecutor Paul Thomson is one of a mentality of "I have my mind made up who is guilty, don't confuse me with the facts." It is disgraceful!

Equally disgraceful, or even more so, is the "selling out" or abandonment of his client Jeffery Franklin Washington by Defense Attorney John Prosser, who was within 2 years rewarded with an appointment to a Circuit Court judgeship.

On 25 July 2008, this investigative reporter witnessed Judge Prosser suspend TEN FELONY Drug Convictions for a woman so that NO, ZERO, ZIP time was served in JAIL.

On 22 August 2008, this investigative reporter witnessed Judge Prosser "recuse" himself when a 65 year old black man acting Pro Se, who has suffered a STROKE from the stress of this 14 year ordeal, came before Judge Prosser in the Winchester Courtroom.

That motivated man is the persistent "Papa" of Jeff Washington, his faithful father Franklin.

Thank God for fathers who never ever ever give up loving and fighting for their children!!!

document how, once police zero in on a suspect, everyone recasts the evidence and their memories to make him match

a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, offer compelling case histories of men such as Walter Snyder, convicted of raping Faye Treatser in Virginia. They document how, once police zero in on a suspect, everyone recasts the evidence and their memories to make him match.

Pardon letter for Washington and Navy Four to Gov. Kaine

This letter of 29 August was sent after a week investigating the case of the Wrongful Jailing of Jeff Washington, and doing research on the website of the Innocence Project, Mid-Atlantic, and their sample letter for the Navy Four, also wrongly jailed.

We hear about "Law and Order" on TV, but notice the words... Law... and.. Order, not Law with Order, or Law for Order.

Too often the Police want to maintain their notions of Order, without regard to the Law, or the Rights of Due Process for Citizens.

Such is the case in the forced "Alford Plea" of Jeff Washington.

What would YOU DO if YOUR Defense Attorney who your parents had paid large sums of money was telling you that YOU would DIE in the electric Chair if you did not accept the Alford Plea your defense attorney was forcing on you?

Suit reveals Court Corruption in 1995 murder trial

Suit targets court reporter of 1995 murder trial (in Winchester vs.
Washington)

Dear Alex Bridges,

Thank you for this article. http://www.nvdaily.com/news/295115663758839.bsp . I tried to comment online, but had some registration problems.

As to the Statute of Limitations, while thank God NOT a lawyer, contrary to the claims in Court by the defense attorneys for the Court Reporter- bed buddy of former Commonwealth Attorney Paul Thomson, I believe there is a 3 year period after the discovery of the Fraud.

The altered Court transcript is a Fraud. Your article indicates that Mr. Franklin Washington learned of this fraud of the Court Reporter in March 2008, just a few months ago.

Parties to the fraud are the former public prosecutor Mr. Thomson, his sexual partner the Court Reporter, and the so-called defense attorney, then in private practice, now a judge of the Circuit Court, Mr. Prosser. At least, Prosser recused himself from the case. That is
like a smoking gun of past wrongs.

Also VERY important is that the court reporter who altered the Court Transcript was having illegal sexual relations with the prosecutor, then Commonwealth Attorney Paul Thomson, who was in the courthouse, not the jailhouse yesterday.

Thomson has many charges for abusive behavior in public but because he is one of the privileged class, unlike his victim Jeffrey Washington, Bar member Thomson is not serving time in jail.

Significant to remember is the Alford Plea clearly indicates that Jeffery Washington did NOT admit Guilt. But when he saw that his own Defense Attorney John Prosser was "conspiring" with prosecutor Thomson, at least to the point of an ineffective defense, then it is
totally rational to take the Alford Plea so that maybe, just maybe, an honest attorney could be obtained to mount an effective appeal while in jail, at least still alive.

Prosser told Washington he would die if he did not accept the Alford Plea.

After you left the Court house yesterday, Mr. Franklin saw another assistant of defense attorney Prosser, who I spoke with, and who indicated other irregularities in the defense efforts of Prosser.

The investigative records, many of which gave a very strong defense case for Jeffery Washington, were given over to Prosser's office as directed, and later when files were needed by Mr. Franklin Washington, the secretary said the files are missing.

It was related that some experienced Court workers felt there was a strong case for the defense of Jeffrey Washington, yet Prosser forced his client to accept an Alford Plea.

There are items from the Courts "evidence lockers" that are missing.

There are ballistics and residue tests that point to other than Jeffery Washington.

One thing for sure is missing in the Jeffery Washington case is "Guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." And yet a man apparently falsely accused, who rightly refuses to "admit guilt", still sits in jail 14 years later. His loving and loyal father has impoverished himself trying to get a fair trial on an Appeal and remand to an honest court.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. And some members of the Bar should be "fired", and jailed, but by virtue of being Bar members, no other Bar member will bring charges, much less vigorously prosecute the likes of Thomson and Prosser.

The Office of U. S. Attorney of the Western District of Louisiana Donald Washington recently prosecuted two state judges for RICO violations with a bail bondsman. Here it appears a current Judge, John Prosser, when a defense attorney, working with the then Commonwealth Attorney Paul Thomson, and his sexual partner, the Court Reporter altered the transcripts to conceal a key witness to the case.

A paralegal researched that person last Friday to learn she has lived in 29 locations since the Alford Plea forced on Washington by then defense attorney Prosser.

Remember the Snyder v. City of Alexandria case where the Alexandria Police coached or tampered with two witnesses to testify (Bear False Witness) in Court that they saw Mr. Snyder rape a woman. After 7 years in jail, a "Constitution Project" was able to act through the
courts to force a DNA test, that proved Snyder could NOT HAVE BEEN the Rapist. Governor Wilder pardoned Snyder.

Maybe Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell or Acting United States Attorney Julia C. Dudley for the Western District of Virginia will begin to restore justice to the Winchester Court, investigate the "Rape of Justice" by Thomson and Prosser in the Jeffrey Washington
Case (and others most likely, such as the one where ten Felony Drug Counts by a WOMAN were all suspended by Judge Prosser a few weeks ago). Someone suggested the woman might be a "police drug informant" so got Prosser's special handling.

Maybe Governor Kaine can pardon Jeffery Washington whose Parole for good behavior while falsely imprisoned after altered transcripts and missing evidence is coming up soon.

Let us pray that Parole is not denied as retaliation for his father's lawsuit exposing the Fraud of prosecutor Thomson and his sexual partner the Court Reporter on the case way back when.

Remember that Joseph in the Bible was falsely imprisoned for 14 years because of the false accusations of Potiphar's wife.

For Equal Justice in Virginia,

James Renwick Manship, Sr.

Investigative Journalist
Member, Society of Professional Journalists
President, The Virginia Chronicle newspaper 2003-2004

So much falsehood by the Winchester Police and Courts!!!

Citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
As General Sherman ordered his Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley,
"Destroy everything except their eyes with which they can see and weep."

See and weep with serious sadness about the Rape of Justice in the "Criminal Justice" system of Winchester Virginia Courts.

Click on the image to read where the Winchester Police, the Prosecutor, AND apparently also the Defense Attorney to send an innocent man to jail...

for 14 YEARS!

State Supreme Court Denies Washington’s Plea for Release

State Supreme Court Denies Washington’s Plea for Release

By Annette Jones
The Winchester Star

Convicted murderer Jeffery Franklin Washington’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus has been denied by the Virginia Supreme Court.

A writ of habeas corpus is a legal request that the person in custody be released from jail because the custody is unlawful due to fatally flawed legal procedures.

Washington, the convicted trigger man in the 1994 drug-related murder of Carlos Marshall, had hoped to have his conviction overturned.

According to the request filed by Washington, D.C., attorney William Moffitt, Washington claimed that witnesses against him were coerced into giving damaging testimony by representatives of Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul H. Thomson.

The one-page ruling issued Tuesday by the state Supreme Court said the justices didn’t find any merit in the complaints raised by Washington.

Ever since Washington entered his Alford guilty pleas, his father, Franklin Washington, has embarked on a letter-writing campaign to public officials highlighting what he saw as illegal activity in the Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office regarding his son’s prosecution.

Franklin Washington also has maintained a vigil in front of the Winchester Public Safety Building on North Cameron Street trying to keep his son’s case in the public eye.

Jeffery Washington was identified by police as the man who formed a plan to robbery Marshall of marijuana on Aug. 16, 1994, and as the man who fired the shot that killed the 22-year-old former Shenandoah University basketball star. Washington was sentenced to 70 years in prison.

Also convicted of Marshall’s murder were John Doleman, Rudolph Powell, William Beamer, and Shawn Polston

2004 Evidence Review... Winchester Star article

Mal-Retardation in City Government thwarts man's freedom

By Laura Arenschield
The Winchester Star

A Winchester man’s decade-long fight to reverse his murder conviction hit another roadblock on Thursday in Winchester Circuit Court.

Jeffrey Franklin Washington, 32, who pleaded guilty 10 years ago to killing and robbing a 22-year-old Winchester man, has spent the time since then trying to get his trial thrown out.

His most recent attempt began last December, when he filed a lawsuit charging that a city prosecutor — now a local defense attorney — and his defense attorney — now a 26th Circuit Court judge — worked together to trick him and the court system.

But retired Circuit Court Judge Herman A. Whisenant Jr. of Manassas said on Thursday that Washington’s accusations are not true.

He dismissed Washington’s suit, leaving the convicted killer with few options.

“He can appeal the court’s decision today to the Virginia Supreme Court,” said David B. Hargett, Washington’s attorney for the suit. “Beyond the Supreme Court, if we appeal and are denied, it would take additional new evidence for him to get a new trial.”

Had Washington been convicted of capital murder 10 years ago, and had a Winchester Circuit Court jury decided he deserved it, he could have been executed.

Rather than risk that outcome, Washington, then 23, and his attorney, John R. Prosser, opted for a plea bargain with then-Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul H. Thomson.

Washington pleaded guilty to eight charges, including first-degree murder, for the shooting death of Carlos Darnell Marshall, who lived on Woodstock Lane.

He entered Alford pleas, a legal option that allowed him to admit that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him, but to maintain that he did not commit the crimes.

Circuit Court Judge John E. Wetsel Jr. sentenced him to 70 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the plea bargain.

Because Washington was convicted and sentenced before Virginia legislators abolished parole, he could be released before he serves the full prison term. According to the Virginia Department of Corrections, Washington is eligible for parole in November 2006.

During Thursday’s hearing, Haggert argued that Washington agreed to the plea deal because he was afraid he would be convicted of capital murder.

Haggert said Washington also pleaded guilty because police and prosecutors intimidated and threatened witnesses who would have said Washington did not kill Marshall.

Washington was not in the Joint Judicial Center courtroom on Thursday, but participated in the hearing via speaker-phone from Buckingham Correctional Center, near Dillwyn, where he is being held.

He said prosecutors offered his co-defendants lighter sentences in exchange for their testimony against him.

Five men, including Washington, were arrested and charged in connection with Marshall’s death.

Washington was the only one found guilty of murder.

Washington said on Thursday that one of the other four men, John Paul Doleman, made a videotape re-enacting the murder for police investigators, and that the video “never placed me at the crime scene.”

But Assistant Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney Marc H. Abrams said the evidence showed that Washington killed Marshall. All four of the other men at Marshall’s home that night said Washington was the killer.

[Editor's Note: See other article that states:

Also convicted of Marshall’s murder were John Doleman, Rudolph Powell, William Beamer, and Shawn Polston ]

Also NOTE error of journalist... An Alford Plea is NOT an admission of Guilt, rather an admission of likely being convicted. Due perception of abandonment or less than zealous defense by his defense attorney John Prosser, now "rewarded" with a judgeship, and the manipulation of evidence by the Winchester Criminal Justice system, it was a rational decision by Washington to accept the Alford Plea of No Admission of Guilt but to accept a sentence so to live to be able to appeal the injustice to date rendered.]

"Ever since Washington entered his Alford guilty pleas, his father, Franklin Washington, has embarked on a letter-writing campaign to public officials highlighting what he saw as illegal activity in the Winchester Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office regarding his son’s prosecution.]

[Then again NOTE: that one witness did a video "re-construction of the crime" where Jeff Washington was NOT part of the video. ]

“I think the evidence was very strong — very, very strong — in this particular case that the right person was convicted,” Abrams said.

Winchester prosecutors are pleased with Whisenant’s decision, he said.

“Frankly, it’s been very frustrating to be retrying aspects of cases that took place 10 years ago,” Abrams said. “At some point, there needs to be finality. We can’t just have somebody make a new allegation years down the road and then retry old cases.”

Watch your back, buddy (Criminal lawyers behind you!)

New York Times about Gov. Wilder Pardon of Walter Snyder

Ask Governor Kaine to do as Governor Wilder did for Snyder, wrongly jailed...

DNA TESTING FREES MAN

JAILED IN RAPE

Published: April 25, 1993

Citing a new analysis of genetic evidence, Virginia's Governor today pardoned a man who had served six and one half years on a rape conviction.

Seven hours later, Walter T. Snyder Jr., 27, walked out of the prison here into the arms of a son, Terrell, who was 1 when his father was arrested. "I'm not bitter," Mr. Snyder said, blaming what he said were overzealous detectives. "Man is so unjust, man to man."

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said Mr. Snyder was exonerated by a test of DNA from the semen left on the victim. "In the absence of that DNA, the evidence would have been pretty damning," Mr. Wilder said in Richmond. "If it can be used to convict, it must also be used to protect the innocent."

Mr. Snyder's lawyer, Peter J. Neufeld of Manhattan, said he would seek compensation in the courts and Legislature for the "lost years of his youth." Prosecutor Sought Release

The case was unusual because the prosecutor petitioned for Mr. Snyder's release. "Had that evidence been presented at trial, he would have been acquitted," said John E. Kloch, the Commonwealth's Attorney of Alexandria.

"There's only one person who knows whether he committed this crime and that's Walter Snyder," Mr. Kloch said. "But with this evidence there's reasonable doubt in my mind."

Although the DNA test results were complete in December, Mr. Kloch defended the delay in releasing Mr. Snyder. "Virginia is a very cautious state," he said. "Sometimes a citizen can suffer because of that."

The victim of the crime, who now works as an accountant for a home-building company in Northern Virginia, said in an interview that she remained convinced that Mr. Snyder was her assailant. "I can't believe that seven years pass, then pull out a Baggie of evidence and say, 'He's not the one,' " she said. "I have been living in forgiveness. Now everything I had settled in my life is in question." Reaction From Jurors

Three of the 12 jurors who convicted Mr. Snyder said the new evidence warranted his release. "This leads you to wonder how many other errors have been made in other cases," said Walter T. Corson 2d, an environmental policy analyst who was on the jury.

Mr. Snyder had lived with his parents in Alexandria, just outside Washington. He was convicted in 1986 of raping a neighbor who reported that a man with a "puppy dog face" came through her open window and assaulted her until she faked having a heart attack.

Mr. Snyder's mother, Edith L. Snyder, a postal worker who was rearing Terrell, spent $90,000 in most of her spare time trying to free her son. She began researching genetic fingerprinting after Mr. Snyder learned about the process while reading a magazine article in prison. In 1990, a laboratory examining evidence from the Alexandria rape found too little DNA to evaluate. In December, a new technique determined Mr. Snyder was not the attacker.

In issuing the pardon, Mr. Wilder criticized a state law that prevents convicts from introducing new evidence of innocence more than 21 days after their initial appeals are exhausted. "This matter should never have been on the Governor's desk," Mr. Wilder said.

The unconditional pardon means Snyder may file a petition with the state to expunge his record of the conviction, Mr. Kloch said.

Genetic fingerprinting, which has been used primarily by prosecutors since being introduced in United States courts in 1986, has become a tool for the innocent. Several authorities in the field said Mr. Snyder was the latest of about 12 convicts who had used the technique to clear their names since 1990.

"Within months, we will see a tremendous demand for testing," said Dr. William C. Thompson, a criminology professor at the University of California at Irvine. "Word is getting around that this is possible. You wouldn't need a very high rate of false convictions to have an awful lot of people in jail who are not guilty."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDA1331F936A15757C0A965958260