Several people went before the Senate Courts and Justice Committee and the House Criminal Law Sub-committee on Wednesday to testify on bills that, if passed, would have DNA taken from not just felons but people convicted of serious misdemeanors, as well. The bills were introduced by Delegate David Toscano, Delegate Rob Bell and Senator Mark Obenshain. Speakers included Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding and Dan and Gil Harrington, the parents of Morgan Harrington whose murder and abduction have been tied to Jesse Matthew by way of his own DNA. Sheriff Harding released his own plea that the bills be passed in the statement below:
Hannah Graham – Another Unnecessary Victim
by Sheriff Chip Harding
I have been advocating for several years that Virginia should expand our DNA Databank to include all criminal convictions. Currently our databank mostly includes convicted felons.
Every day we wait to expand the Virginia’s DNA Databank, we risk one of our loved ones falling victim to an attack from a violent predator that could have been prevented, and a person wrongly convicted sits in prison.
• New York State Governor Cuomo recently championed the initiative and it allowed his state to be the first to have an all criminal conviction databank. He pointed out that: In the 5 ½ years since petit larceny-the pettiest of crimes-has been a DNA eligible offense in N.Y. State , convicted offender samples have helped solve 965 crimes, including 51 murders, 222 sexual assaults, 177 robberies and 407 burglaries. DNA samples taken from individuals convicted of second-degree criminal trespass have been linked to 30 homicides, 110 sexual assaults and 121 burglaries, among other crimes.
On average, offenders linked to crimes in N.Y. State had three prior non-qualifying convictions before finally being convicted of an offense that required a DNA sample to be taken. My observation over my past 40 years in Virginia’s Justice System is the same. One can check the record of almost any Virginia serial predator and see the same –some examples are:
• Hannah Graham most likely would have never met her accused abductor Jesse Matthew, if his DNA had been collected when he was convicted of criminal trespass in Charlottesville in August of 2010. His DNA would have generated a “hit” at that time in the databank to the 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax. If convicted of that attack he most likely would have been in a jail cell at the time Hannah was walking on the Charlottesville Downtown mall. She would be alive in her dorm room studying today.
• One of Charlottesville’s most notorious serial rapists in the past 30 years is Shannon Malnowski. Malnowski had a felony assault reduced to a misdemeanor in 1992 and a felony breaking and entering reduced to a trespass charge in 1994. In 1996 he raped a UVA student who was out jogging and in 1997 a 78 yr old professor’s wife in broad daylight in some bushes near the Culbreath Theater. In 2000 a student was raped on the Charlottesville High School track. Malnowski became a suspect and we obtained his DNA. It “hit” in all three cases. He was sentenced to life plus 50 years. If a DNA sample had been taken for the misdemeanors, he would have been caught after the first rape and the latter two rapes would have never occurred.
• If Nathan Washington had contributed a DNA profile when convicted of a misdemeanor driving on a revoked license in 1998, he never would have been the notorious “Charlottesville Serial Rapist” who raped at least 7 women over a 10 year period .His DNA would have “hit” from a rape in 1997 of a woman in Waynesboro. I would not have had to go into one of his victim’s homes and see blood spattered over three walls where he had beaten and raped her for hours. His 6 Charlottesville rapes would have never occurred.
• The famous “East Coast Rapist” who had 18 known victims. Half those victims would have been saved on Nov. 11, 2003 when, Aaron Thomas was convicted of a misdemeanor Assault and Battery. The 3 teenagers out on Halloween night in Dale City, VA would never have been assaulted.
• Earl Washington came within 9 days of being executed in Virginia before DNA test indicated his DNA was not present at the 1982 Culpeper rape murder scene of Rebecca Lyn Williams. Years later he was exonerated. The Databank connected Kenneth Tinsley, who later raped another woman in Albemarle County, to William’s murder. I checked Tinsley’s history and he had a conviction of petit larceny in Martinsville 12 years before he admittedly attacked Williams. If an all crimes Databank had been in place back then Earl Washington would have probably NEVER been arrested and spent years on death row. The Albemarle rape would not have happened and Virginia would not have paid to incarcerate and prosecute the wrong man as well as an approximate 2 million dollar settlement. DNA has exonerated 20 from death row to date.
I hope that all Virginian’s will consider contacting their representatives in the General Assembly and advocate for databank expansion. The time is now to allow DNA technology better protect our loved ones.
