RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Two Virginia men wrongfully convicted of rape have been exonerated by random cold case DNA testing ordered by Gov. Mark Warner.
Warner's staff said prosecutors in Norfolk and Alexandria have investigated 31 cases, and in the two rape cases had requested the governor issue absolute pardons.
One of the men spent 20 years in prison and the other served 11 years. Their names were not released because they requested privacy.
Last month, Warner commuted the death sentence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison, citing the destruction of evidence in the case by a court clerk, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
The two men cleared of rape by DNA evidence are no longer in prison and may have been unaware they had a right to request the testing or that the evidence even existed, said Kevin Hall, a governor's spokesman.
Betty Layne DesPortes, a Richmond-area defense attorney and chairwoman of the jurisprudence section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, has called for an investigation into how the wrongful convictions occurred.
