Virginia Crime Commission to Review Eight Executions Linked to Potentially Mishandled DNA Evidence

The cas­es of eight men exe­cut­ed between 1986 and 1998 will be part of a Virginia State Crime Commission review into the prac­tices of Mary Jane Burton, a foren­sic sci­en­tist who alleged­ly mis­han­dled DNA evi­dence and gave inac­cu­rate tes­ti­mo­ny in court. The cas­es are among more than 7,000 cas­es linked to Ms. Burton that are being assessed after jour­nal­ist Tessa Kramer uncov­ered con­cerns about Ms. Burton’s meth­ods. Ms. Kramer’s pod­cast, Admissible: Shreds of Evidence, brought those con­cerns to light. In 2024, Virginia passed leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a review process for cas­es that Ms. Burton handled. 

Junk sci­ence has fea­tured in at least 32% (65) of all death row exon­er­a­tions in the mod­ern death penalty era. 

The eight exe­cut­ed men who are includ­ed in the review are Michael Marnell Smith, Earl Clanton Jr., Edward B. Fitzgerald St., Syvasky Poyner, Walter Correll Jr., Alton Waye, Kenneth Wilson, and Timothy Spencer, whose case was notable as the first cap­i­tal mur­der con­vic­tion obtained through the use of DNA evidence. 

Shawn Armbrust, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, con­duct­ed an ini­tial review of the eight cas­es. She said that it was impor­tant for the state to review the cas­es, despite their age. ​“One of the ques­tions that comes up when peo­ple are look­ing into some­thing like Mary Jane Burton is, ​‘But that was so many years ago, who real­ly cares?’” Ms. Armbrust said. ​“It’s real­ly impor­tant for the cred­i­bil­i­ty of Virginia’s crim­i­nal legal sys­tem going for­ward that it grap­ples with sins of the past and tries to learn from those things.” 

Virginia abol­ished the death penal­ty in 2021, becom­ing the first south­ern state to do so. From 1976 to 2021, the state exe­cut­ed 113 peo­ple. One death row pris­on­er, Earl Washington, was exon­er­at­ed with the help of DNA evidence.