Is Virginia About to Execute an Innocent Man?: "Robin Lovitt was convicted based on DNA evidence that has now been destroyed.  The only witness to clearly identify Lovitt as the attacker was a jailhouse snitch.  At his trial, prosecutors claimed that DNA test results showed that the victim’s blood was on the murder weapon and that Robin Lovitt’s sweat was left on the murder weapon.  In fact, the only identifying allele was one that is common to 35% of the male African-American population, including Robin Lovitt.  None of the blood found on Robin Lovitt’s jacket matched the victim, which would be expected if he were the actual murderer.

The use of current DNA techniques would likely exonerate Robin Lovitt, as in the case of Earl Washington, the only exoneree from Virginia’s death row.  But we’ll never know because the evidence has been destroyed."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)