ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Gov. George Allen on Wednesday pardoned a man who spent seven years in prison for a rape and robbery that DNA tests showed he did not commit.
Troy Lynn Webb, 29, was serving a 47-year sentence at Keen Mountain Correctional Center in Oakwood. Webb left the prison at about 2 p.m., about 30 minutes after talking by telephone with Allen, said state Department of Corrections spokesman David Botkins.
Allen said in a statement that Webb would not have been convicted had the jury had access to DNA evidence seven years ago.
``One of the primary reasons the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia places with the governor the authority, discretion and solemn responsibility to grant clemency is to correct demonstrable errors of justice,'' Allen said. ``This case is such.''
Allen told reporters that before he called Webb, he called the victim to tell her about the pardon.
``She was understanding,'' Allen said. ``I told her I was sorry she had to relive this traumatic event. She took it well from what I could tell.''
Allen said Webb was ``grateful and relieved'' to learn of the pardon. He said he sensed no bitterness on Webb's part.
Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys, whose office prosecuted Webb in 1989, joined in Webb's request for an unconditional pardon. He was out of town and unavailable for comment Wednesday, an assistant said.
Neither Webb nor his lawyer, Barry Scheck, could be reached. Prison officials were driving him from Oakwood to Virginia Beach, about an eight-hour drive. Scheck did not return phone messages left at his office and his home.
Webb was convicted on the basis of serology tests - the most sophisticated tests available at the time. An analysis of a semen stain from the victim's underwear did not rule out Webb.
Also, the victim - who is white - identified Webb as her attacker in separate photo lineups of black suspects presented to her by police and in court.
``Just as we know that mistaken eyewitness identification is a major cause of convicting the innocent, cross-racial identification occurs with particular frequency,'' Scheck wrote in his petition to Allen.
Humphreys said Webb's face appeared in police photo lineups because of a previous conviction for the 1985 gang rape of a 14-year-old. The judge in that trial found Webb was present during the rape but had not touched the girl.
The victim of the 1988 rape was a 25-year-old Virginia Beach waitress. She testified that she was attacked in the parking lot of her apartment complex when she returned from work about 3 a.m.
Webb was tried in 1989 on charges of abduction with intent to defile, rape, robbery and use of a gun. His court-appointed lawyer, Virginia Beach public defender Peter Legler, presented no evidence in his defense.
The Virginia Court of Appeals and the Virginia Supreme Court rejected Webb's appeals. His family then contacted The Innocence Project, which uses DNA testing to free people who have been wrongfully convicted.
The state Division of Forensic Science conducted the DNA test. On Sept. 7, a state forensic scientist reported that the test eliminated Webb as the rapist.
Prosecutors frequently use DNA tests - sometimes referred to as ``genetic fingerprinting'' - to convict rapists and other criminals.
``If such scientific evidence is appropriate for use in convicting the guilty, then fairness and justice dictate that its use is also appropriate to protect those who are not guilty,'' Allen said.
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