Times-Dispatch Opinion – Criminal Justice: AG & innocence
Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 10:08 pm, Mon Nov 19, 2012.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s critics — and they are legion — vilify him as an arch-conservative bomb-thrower. To a large degree he has invited those attacks through his sallies against abortion clinics, climatologist Michael Mann and the EPA. But in other areas Cuccinelli’s aggressive approach may pay dividends that should gladden liberal hearts.
The attorney general is drafting legislation to modify Virginia’s 21-day rule, which (with certain exceptions) prohibits the introduction of exculpatory evidence more than three weeks after a conviction, even if such innocence proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that a convicted man is innocent.