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| DNA exonerates Virginia man |
| By The Virginian-Pilot |
| Published: 08/30/2004 |
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A man who spent nearly 22 years in prison for two rapes he did not commit went home to his family last Monday after DNA evidence exonerated him of the crimes. Commonwealth's Attorney John R. Doyle III asked the state Parole Board last Monday for the immediate release of 49-year-old Arthur Lee Whitfield. Whitfield was convicted in 1982 of two rapes that occurred within 45 minutes of each other in Ghent. Each woman was walking from her car to her apartment when she was attacked in the evening of Aug. 14, 1981. Both testified that Whitfield was the attacker. But Doyle concluded that Whitfield did not commit the crimes, after DNA samples collected for his trial were found at the state lab. The samples came from the files of a lab scientist whose habit of saving evidence exonerated another Norfolk man of a rape conviction last year. Doyle said the samples point to another man, who is serving a life sentence for an unrelated 1984 rape conviction. Doyle said he could not yet identify that man. |
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