22 April 2003

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Three seperate papers from wildly different locales writing to condemn the 21 day rule:

Hampton Roads: Anecdotal story of someone who everyone, including the complaining detective, thinks is innocent but who cannot go back to court because he is outside the 21 day period.

Charlottesville: Making the argument as to why actual innocence should be a reason to be allowed back into court and explaining why the rule might die in commission.

Roanoke:   

"Virginia's General Assembly took up the task of reforming the state's notoriously restrictive 21-day rule last session - and passed legislation to extend the deadline on new evidence of innocence to 90 days. Big deal.

    On Day 91, then, even a 'videotape of someone else committing the crime,' as Richmond lawyer Steve Benjamin puts it, would provide no grounds for the courts to consider whether the people of Virginia might possibly have made a mistake."

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