THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9501020064
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 206 lines
For 21 years, Stanford Ware Sr. has tried to prove the innocence of his oldest son and namesake, Stanford Jr.
Now, he's found the hope to keep him going for another 21 years.
In 1973, Stanford Jr. was sentenced in Norfolk Circuit Court to 60 years in prison for the rape and abduction of a woman near Chesapeake Boulevard. Diagnosed since childhood as paranoid schizophrenic, he served most of his sentence in Central State Hospital in Petersburg. He maintained his innocence during the trial, through his conviction, after his 1985 release.
Court records show that the Wares repeatedly told the authorities that another man committed the rape. Another man, convicted of two nearly identical rapes, in the same area, during the same time period. They even had his name - Calvin Miller, who was released on parole in October 1982.
But working against the Wares was an irrefutable fact - the rape victim identified Ware in court. Although her description of her assailant came closer to describing Miller than Ware, she picked Ware out in a lineup. She never wavered in her identification.
During the past two decades, the father has hired eight lawyers in his quest to clear his son's name. The Wares have been to court repeatedly, from the original trial through two appeals. The family estimates it has spent $50,000 in legal fees and other expenses. Stanford Sr. fights high blood pressure.
``It seems like I've spent my whole life on this,'' said the father, 72, a retired stevedore. ``My whole family was home with Stanford the night of the rape. If Stanford was guilty, I'd say go to prison and take your rightful punishment. But my son is innocent. There was no evidence.''
Now 49 and living at home, Stanford Jr. says his main goal now is just to regain his civil rights, forfeited on his conviction. ``I'm trained to be an upholsterer, but when someone sees that rape I lose the job,'' he said. ``It'd be nice to vote again. It'd be nice to show I wasn't lying all along.''
Last week, Stanford Jr. and his father began what may be their last effort to prove his innocence. This time, a new factor enters the equation - DNA.
A motion filed last month in Circuit Court asks the court to produce the police evidence, particularly the lab smears from the victim, and resubmit them to the state forensics lab for DNA testing - a technique not available when Ware was convicted. Instead, the motion said, the analysis will point to Calvin Miller.
``Such after-acquired evidence will be of such a magnitude as to create conflicts of evidence that a jury should resolve in a new trial,'' the petition states. ``The evidence . . . will unequivocally show that someone other than (Ware) committed the rape. . . . The evidence will support the conclusion that Calvin Miller committed the rape.
``The police, choosing to ignore the similarities between Miller's crimes and (the victim in Ware's case), never placed (Ware) and Miller in a line-up together, although at one time they were in jail during the same period,'' the petition adds.
There is a good chance that, if the court reopens the case, the vaginal swabs taken from the victim can be resubmitted for analysis. Although Norfolk police officials would not comment on Ware's case, they said they still keep evidence from some violent crimes dating back to the early 1960s.
Miller now lives in Spartansburg, S.C. Ware's newest attorney, Andrew Protogyrou, said he plans to contact Miller soon.
Protogyrou likens Ware's case to that of Edward Honaker, released from prison in October by Gov. George Allen after he was cleared of a 1984 rape. Like Ware, Honaker was convicted on the basis of a victim's identification. Protogyrou hopes that, like Honaker, DNA tests will prove that Ware is an innocent man.
At about 1:30 a.m. on March 19, 1972, a 30-year-old mother of four stopped at the 24-hour Giant Open Air Market at Wards Corner to buy some groceries after getting off work. She parked her 1964 Pontiac sedan at the darkened side of the market. As she returned from shopping and opened her car door, a man approached from behind and put a gun to her head.
He told her not to scream or he would blow her head off, then forced her to get down on the front floor and covered her head with a rag.
The man drove her car to the Chesapeake Manor section off Chesapeake Boulevard, where he stuffed a greasy rag in her mouth and raped her. He then drove to the 1000 block of Kennedy St., where he got out of the car and told her that if she told anyone of the rape he would come looking for her. The rapist ran off; the victim called police.
The victim, who could not be located for this report, described her assailant as a black man in his 20s or 30s with sideburns and a moustache. He wore a checked shirt and smelled of alcohol, she said.
Seven days later, in the early morning hours, three detectives arrived at Ware's home on Oakmont Place, near Chesapeake Boulevard. They knocked, and Stanford Sr. let them in. They roused Stanford Jr. out of bed and took him downtown for the rape while his parents and siblings watched.
According to the testimony of one of the detectives, Stanford Jr. said ``I didn't rape that white woman!'' before detectives told him why he was being arrested. But Ware, his father and brother Daniel denied he ever said that. The family told police Ware had been in his bedroom most of the night while the rest of the family watched TV. They asked to see an arrest warrant and were told the police didn't need one, Stanford Sr. said.
``They said they could kick my door in and get Stanford if they wanted,'' Stanford Sr. said. The detectives took Ware to police headquarters, where the victim picked him out in a lineup and he was charged.
On Dec. 7, 1972, Judge Alfred Whitehurst found Ware guilty of abduction and rape. He found Ware's family impressive: ``It would seem they said what they knew to be the truth,'' he said. Yet balanced against that was the victim's positive identification, a factor that didn't change.
On Feb. 8, 1973, Whitehurst sentenced him to 60 years.
What was the evidence against Ware? In some respects, he fit the victim's description: black male, then 27, with a mustache. He supposedly mentioned the rape of the ``white woman'' when detectives roused him. The victim identified him in a lineup and in court.
But there the similarities ended. According to court records, Ware was unable to drive a car, consume alcohol or grow sideburns because of medication he took for schizophrenia. Medical records showed he had never been arrested for any violent incidents. He suffered from feelings of inferiority, largely because of his mental illness. Although he had been charged as a juvenile for burglary, he did that to win approval from other boys in school, a psychiatrist wrote.
In a 1980 hearing, homicide detective Ralph Mears told attorney William P. Robinson Jr. that police first heard about Ware from an unidentified informant.
``The only thing I can recall,'' said Mears, was that the informant phoned and said ``Ware is the one that done it; that's all.'' He added there was no other evidence then against Ware.
In the week following the rape, Ware was questioned by a uniformed officer while drinking a cup of coffee at a nearby doughnut shop. But, again, he was not arrested.
After Ware's arrest in March 1972, similar rapes continued through that summer. It was not until Calvin Miller was arrested in August 1972 that they stopped. At one point, records show, police investigated Ware for the Calvin Miller rapes. But they never investigated Miller for Ware's charge. Neither did they put Ware, then 26, and Miller, then 28, together in a lineup for another identification by Ware's alleged victim.
A detective later told the court he simply was not aware of the similarities between the charges against the two men.
Unlike Ware, Calvin Miller had been in trouble long before his arrest in 1972. Born in Spartansburg in 1944, he joined the Navy at age 20 and was assigned to the Shore Patrol. Records show he already had a drinking problem.
But the first criminal signs of violence occurred in 1970 in Mobile, Ala., where he was charged with rape, abduction, assault and sodomy. He picked up a woman and gave her ride, then raped her, the victim said. When police found him later that night, he was drunk and asleep in the back seat of his car with his pants around his ankles. But the charges were dropped because of the victim's ``disreputable reputation,'' court records said.
Soon, Miller was transferred to Norfolk. He took a job as an attendant at an Esso gas station. He set up house on Sewells Point Road, near the scenes of the rapes and across Chesapeake Boulevard from Ware's home.
Court records would later say of Miller: ``We are dealing with a multiple sex offender, the extent of which may not be fully known.''
Miller's first known rape in Norfolk occurred on June 2, 1972, three months after Ware's arrest. At about 1:45 a.m. in the parking lot of the Giant Open Air Market at Wards Corner, he attacked a 31-year-old woman with a crowbar, forced her to lie on the floorboard and drove her to the Chesapeake Boulevard area, where he beat and raped her, then ran off. He was wearing his checked Esso shirt with his name stitched above the pocket, the victim told police. She also said her assailant was drunk at the time.
Miller's victim took the investigation into her own hands. She drove from Esso station to Esso station, looking for the man who raped her. On June 8, she pulled up to an Esso on Campostella Road. Miller walked out and pumped her gas. He was wearing the same shirt.
He was arrested the same day, then soon let out on bond.
The next rape occurred two months later. On the night of Aug. 22, 1972, Miller attacked an 18-year-old woman at gunpoint in the 3100 block of Sewells Point Road. He forced her into his car and made her lie on the floor. He drove to the Norview area near Chesapeake Boulevard, where he raped and beat her, then drove away.
Three days later, the victim identified Miller's photo. When police drove her to Miller's apartment, she identified Miller's car as the one in which she was raped. When they searched the apartment, they found her purse.
Miller admitted to the rape, saying he was drunk and out of control. He added he raped her ``because he wanted to humiliate a white girl'' out of rage for the first rape charge, which he denied. Court records also show that he was being investigated for the rape of a 17-year-old girl, but there were never any charges in that case.
After Miller's second arrest, the similar rapes ended in the Norview area. Miller was eventually convicted of the two rapes and sentenced to 100 years in prison. He was released nine years later on parole.
During the investigation into Miller's rapes, detectives lifted a print from the car of one of his victims. The prints matched Miller's. But they were never compared to a print lifted from the car of Ware's alleged victim. That print was never analyzed.
In fact, they never compared the two cases, a detective later testified.
Calvin Miller's name was never raised during Ware's trial.
``Why was none of this ever investigated?'' Stanford Sr. asked. ``Why? Racism's partly why, I think. That, and the police didn't care about innocence once they got an arrest. I know the woman's identifying my son was strong against him, but there was so much more they didn't look at, so much more that was right under their nose.''
``If I have to spend the rest of my life trying to free my son from the guilt of being a rapist, I'll do it,'' he added. ``But I hope this is it. Maybe someone'll listen this time. It's been so long, and we're all tired.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Stanford Ware Sr., with Stanford Jr.
THE CASES
[Photos]
Stanford Ware Jr. was convicted of raping and abducting a woman
near Chesapeake Boulevard in March 1972, mainly based on an
identification by the victim. After his arrest, similar rapes
continued in the area.
Calvin Miller was convicted of raping and abducting women in the
Chesapeake Boulevard area in June and August of 1972. After his
arrest in August of that year, similar rapes in the area stopped.
KEYWORDS: RAPE DNA by CNB