The VLW Blog

The Virginia Forensic Science Board has decided against turning to private attorneys for help in locating and notifying felons of old biological evidence in their cases that could be retested, the AP reports.
Board members reportedly decided instead to make the notification by certified letter because of questions of the legality of involving nongovernment entities in […]

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The Virginia Department of Forensic Science has obtained its 5,000th hit to Virginia’s Offender DNA Databank, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
A “hit” occurs when a DNA profile developed from any biological fluid, tissue, or hair recovered from a crime scene is matched to a DNA profile from an individual or a […]

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The Los Angeles Times reports on a study that suggests that matches of DNA profiles may be more common than the one in more than 100 billion projected by the FBI and other crime labs.
The FBI responds that it is the methodology of the study itself that is flawed, and The Times says the […]

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The New York Times Magazine to be published Sunday has an extended article questioning the validity of the convictions of four sailors who confessed to the rape and murder of a woman in Norfolk in 1997.
The story by free-lance writer Alan Berlow cites inconsistencies between the confessions and the physical evidence and among the […]

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A defendant who submits to a DNA mouth swab in one case can’t prevent prosecutors from using it to solve a cold case, according to a new decision from the Virginia Court of Appeals.
In Pharr v. Commonwealth (VLW 007-7-239), the court said that use of the DNA didn’t violate the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights.
While […]

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The final chapter in the 25-year saga that began with the rape and murder of a Culpeper woman may be written soon.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the state has agreed to pay $1.9 million to Earl Washington Jr., the mildly retarded man who falsely confessed to the murder of 19-year-old Rebecca Lynn Williams.
The settlement […]

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