Networked Knowledge - Media Report

This version of the report has been prepared by: Dr Robert N Moles

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On 13 August 2008 Frank Green of the Times-Dispatch reported “Man not cleared despite DNA test” [Curtis Jasper Moore].

He said the probe into 1975 slaying continues; evidence now points to another man. The late Curtis Jasper Moore, convicted of a 1975 murder, has not been exonerated by DNA testing that implicates a convicted sex offender and might have finally solved the crime. The testing was performed as part of an enormous state DNA investigation aimed at clearing anyone who might have been wrongly convicted of serious crimes before DNA testing was widely available. Instead, it led to Monday's announcement of what is believed to be the state DNA databank's second-oldest "cold hit," linking sex offender Thomas Pope Jr., 53, to the Jan. 2, 1975, slaying of Eva King Jones, an 88-year-old widow in Emporia.

The DNA findings do not yet exonerate Moore, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller. "We are currently reviewing the entire investigation, evidence, witness statements, etc. and will proceed from there," she said. But Harvey Latney Jr., who represented Moore 30 years ago, said that when he picked up yesterday's Richmond Times-Dispatch and learned about the DNA test results, "I was just elated. . . . I always thought that he was innocent." Moore, said to have suffered from chronic schizophrenia, had been released from a mental institution in Washington just weeks before the slaying in Emporia. He spent several years at the Central State Hospital prior to his 1978 trial. "I'm sorry that Curtis is not living, I didn't know about [his death]," said Latney, who served as the Caroline County commonwealth's attorney from 1978 until last year.

When he represented Moore, Latney was in private practice in Richmond. He said that Moore would call him every year or two, but the calls stopped several years ago. Latney and Greensville County Commonwealth's Attorney Patricia T. Watson said that after Moore's conviction and life sentence in 1978, he spent most of the time confined in mental institutions rather than prisons. His convictions were overturned in 1983. Watson said Moore died about four years ago of natural causes. She and Latney said they did not believe he was in an institution when he died. Moore's family could not be reached.

Watson said that Pope will probably make an initial appearance in Greensville County General District Court on Monday. He is charged with rape and murder. Former Commonwealth's Attorney Benjamin Vincent prosecuted Moore. Vincent did not return calls yesterday. Moore's convictions were overturned by a federal appeals court that found Moore's Miranda rights had been violated.

Ten men have been cleared of crimes by DNA testing in Virginia. Five were cleared by evidence kept in old case files - from 1973 through 1988 - of state forensic serologists. The files are being studied to find others who might have been wrongly convicted. One of the 10, Earl Washington Jr., was sent to death row for a 1982 rape and murder that DNA later proved someone else committed. Washington, who is mildly retarded, confessed to the crimes during an unrecorded interrogation. He was cleared in 2000.

In ordering a new trial for Moore, the appeals court decision in part cited the tape recording of his interrogation to show his Miranda rights had been violated. Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project and one of Washington's lawyers, said, "in this case, as in Earl Washington's, there is demonstrable proof that suspects, particularly vulnerable ones, falsely confess. "How many more exonerations will we need before the commonwealth takes the prudent step in requiring that all interrogations be videotaped," he asked.

According to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, more than a dozen states require the videotaping of at least some interrogations. Virginia does not.

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