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[music playing] NARRATOR: In 1984,
a young couple got lost searching for a
campsite in Virginia's Blue
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Ridge Parkway. They decided to spend the
night sleeping in their car. They were awakened by a white
male in his mid 30s at 3:00 AM.
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MAN: Step out of the vehicle. NARRATOR: What the
couple saw that night, their eyewitness description
of the assailant,
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was all that police
had to go on. [music playing] When the 19-year-old woman
and her 22-year-old fiance
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were rousted from
sleep, they assumed the man was a policeman. MAN: Move to the rear
of the vehicle, please.
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NARRATOR: Blinded
by his flashlight, and concerned that they
had broken the law,
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they handed over their
car keys as ordered. Suddenly, the man produced
a gun and told the fiancee
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to run into the woods. He threatened to kill
him if he didn't obey. MAN: Move!
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NARRATOR: The young woman,
now terrified for her life, was forced at gunpoint
into the man's vehicle.
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MAN: Open the door. Open it! Get in the back. Keep your head down. Don't look at me.
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NARRATOR: He drove her
to a secluded campsite about a half hour away. MAN: That's far enough.
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On your knees. NARRATOR: And over
the next two hours, repeatedly raped
and sodomized her.
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Why are you doing this to me? [music playing] NARRATOR: Although the assailant
had threatened to kill her,
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he left her on a
deserted stretch of road and told her how to
get back to her car.
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She was traumatized, but alive. Is there anything that
you remember about this guy?
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His appearance? His demeanor? NARRATOR: The victim said that
the rapist wore camouflage
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pants, had a large
cross around his neck, and during the assault,
chain-smoked, drank whiskey,
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and babbled incessantly
about Lieutenant Koleki and their experiences
together in Vietnam.
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MAN: --leki. Koleki. [inaudible] war
hell for all of us. NARRATOR: The victim
and her fiancee
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helped a police sketch artist
prepared this composite drawing of the assailant. Police all across
Virginia searched
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for a man who fit
the description, but the search
turned up nothing, and police feared that
the Blue Ridge rapist
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would never be identified. Four months passed,
and in nearby Roanoke, Virginia, there was
another sexual assault.
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The victim said
her attacker looked a lot like one of her
neighbors, Edward Honaker.
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Honaker had an alibi
for the rape in Roanoke and was quickly
eliminated as a suspect.
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But investigators noticed
a striking resemblance between Edward Honaker
and the composite drawing
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of the Blue Ridge rapist. Honaker owned an automobile
similar to the one driven by the Blue Ridge rapist.
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It had no back seat
and had rust damage on the body, consistent
with the description
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given by the victim. The car he was driving,
one of those big Broncos, was identified by the
victim as-- as a car
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driven by the rapist. He had a mustache,
so did the rapist. He was about the same size,
height, weight as the rapist.
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The case seemed to
point directly at him. NARRATOR: Police prepared
a photographic lineup
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of six individuals to show
the victim and her fiancee. They both identified Edward
Honaker as the rapist.
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Cam-- camoflague. NARRATOR: The rape victim and
her fiance both identified Edward Honaker as the rapist
from the photographic lineup,
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honaker was a 34-year-old welder
with a dishonorable discharge from the military and a
past history of burglary,
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he had recently been
hospitalized for depression because his wife had left him,
taking their three children.
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When Honaker was questioned
about the rape in the Blue Ridge Parkway four
months earlier,
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he didn't immediately
offer an alibi. Later, he said he was asleep in
his mother's home in Montvale,
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78 miles away. Honaker owned an automobile
similar to the assailant's, and from his home, police
recovered clothes and jewelry
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similar to those worn
by the Blue Ridge rapist on the night
of the attack. She described the assailant
as having worn fatigues.
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Fatigues were
recovered at his home. She described him as having
a cross about his neck.
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A cross was uncovered. She also said that he had told
her when this assault was over
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that he was going back
to the Roanoke area, and honaker was living in
and about the Roanoke area.
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NARRATOR: The final
step was to compare the hair found on
the victim's shorts
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with Edward Honaker's hair. The expert there stated that
they were very likely to match.
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And that was very strong
evidence against him as well. Last thing I told my mother
was, don't worry about it.
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I'll probably be home tomorrow
evening or the next day. I thought I would go to a
line up or something, and--
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and the lady, the victim, would
say, no, this isn't the guy. NARRATOR: But
something else happened
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when Edward Honaker faced his
accuser for the first time in court. PHILLIP PAYNE: He was identified
in a crowded courtroom
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at the preliminary hearing
by the fiance and the victim. They both identified
him in the courtroom.
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Picked him out. Not seat-- not standing in
an orange suit up front, but mixed in among the
rest of the spectators
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in the courtroom. MAN: Get out of here. NARRATOR: Honaker's defense
lawyer noted that Honaker
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was right-handed,
and the assailant held the gun in his left hand. The assailant ranted about
his experiences in Vietnam,
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but Honaker was
never in Vietnam. The defense also
presented evidence that Honaker had
a vasectomy, which
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meant he could not have
produced the sperm found on the vaginal swab. But the prosecution said
the victim and her fiancee
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had consensual sex a few
days before the rape. The sperm could have
belonged to the fiance.
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For the jury, it was
an easy decision. The most damaging
piece of evidence came when the victim
took the stand.
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Henry Connor was
the jury foreman. She looked right
at the defendant, looked him in the
eye, so to speak,
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and said, that is
the man who raped me. And we had no reason to
doubt her because she
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was very, very sure. I had a lot of animosity
toward her and her boyfriend. I just-- I couldn't
understand why
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they had done this to me, why
they had chosen me for this. And I just-- I-- I don't know.
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I just-- I had a lot of
hatred for-- for both of them. NARRATOR: Edward Honaker was
found guilty of rape, sodomy,
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and aggravated sexual battery
and was sentenced to three life terms plus 34 years.
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The judge stated that Honaker's
hair found on the victim had sealed his fate.
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While Honaker was in
prison, he continued to proclaim his innocence. Months went by, then years.
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Over time, Honaker's
attention turned from proving his innocence
to simple survival.
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EDWARD HONAKER: You can't
show fear in prison. If you do, you'll
be preyed upon.
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There are some of the
world's best predators locked up in a
prison cell, and they
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will take advantage of you. They can-- they will
spot it, I think someone said once, quicker
than a lion can spot a limp.
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NARRATOR: Over the
next five years, Honaker sent letters to
journalists, lawyers,
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and criminal advocates
all across the country, pleading his case to
anyone who would listen.
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No one responded. Honaker never gave up
hope, but was out of ideas. Until one day, on
television, he watched
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the trial of Timothy Spencer,
the so-called Southside Strangler. I had watched that trial.
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And I told a friend of
mine at the prison, Floyd, I said, Floyd, this is my-- this is my salvation.
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This is the answer that God
has given me through all of my prayers is this DNA. NARRATOR: But
Honaker wasn't sure
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if the vaginal swab from his
rape case had been preserved, and if it had, could it still
be tested after all those years?
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Five years after Edward Honaker
was convicted of a rape he said he didn't commit,
one of his letters
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made its way to Kate Germond
of Centurion Ministries, an organization
that works on behalf
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of the wrongfully convicted. Centurion Ministries
receives thousands of letters from convicted
criminals every year,
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but there were a number of
things about Honaker's case that caught Germond's attention.
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KATE GERMOND: Eyewitness
testimony in our country is considered by most
people to be the most
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profound proof of truth. That's the man that
did this to me. We all assume--
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I think, through
the years, we've come to believe that our
mind is like a videotape,
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that it just accurately
records whatever we see, whatever
we hear, whatever we come in contact with.
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The reality is, what our memory
is actually recording is, yes, what's going on in
the moment, but it's
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also mixed into that
is memories, dreams, some little distraction. It's just a huge variety pack.
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So our memories are actually
not accurate at all. NARRATOR: When the victim
chose Honaker's picture
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from the photo lineup, Honaker
was the only one standing in front of a white background.
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The other suspects were
all photographed in front of the standard height scale. Research has shown that
if one item in the array
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of photographs is
uniquely different, such as the background, it
is more likely to be chosen.
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Furthermore, police lineup
should include faces that have an equal chance of being
selected, faces similar to one
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another. Honaker's photo was
the only one of six that remotely resembled
the description
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given by the victim. The mug shot
spread that was shown to both the victim and her
boyfriend, in my opinion,
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is one of the most tainted mug
shot spreads I've ever seen. NARRATOR: Centurion Ministries
asked the state of Virginia
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to release the forensic evidence
used to convict Honaker, and they asked hair
expert, Dr. Peter DeForest,
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to analyze the hair
found on the victim's shorts, which the
state of Virginia
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said matched Edward
Honaker's hair. PETER DEFOREST: I compared
the unknown hair taken
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from the victim with a
known sample of Mr. Honaker, and assuming that the known
sample was representative
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of Mr. Honaker's
range of variation, I would have eliminated
Mr. as was the donor
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of that hair from the victim. NARRATOR: And forensic
scientists agree. There is no such
thing as a hair match.
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You cannot match hair. There is no such
thing as a hair match. The most that you can
ever say about hair
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testimony, hair
evidence, is that it is similar or
dissimilar, that it'd consistent or not consistent.
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That's it. NARRATOR: And
their investigation uncovered something else. We also learned
that the victim
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had been to a hypnotist
to have her memory hypnotically refreshed. The hypnotist notes in a
letter to the prosecutor
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that the victim
was brought to him because she could not recall
the face of her assailant.
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NARRATOR: Hypnotically
enhanced recollections are inadmissible as
evidence in most states,
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including Virginia. The victim's
identification of Honaker should not have been
presented to the jury.
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But when the victim pointed to
Ed Honaker in the courtroom, it practically ensured
his conviction.
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The victim was very,
very convincing and very, very credible. And I think she, beyond
all shadow of a doubt, made
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the difference in the jury's-- I know, in my own case. And there was-- I don't think there was ever
any real doubt in the minds
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of the jurors about
about the guilt of Mr. Honaker at the time. NARRATOR: Barry Scheck was
convinced that DNA testing
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would prove Honaker's
claims of innocence, but prosecutors and Honaker's
his new defense team
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were in for another
surprise when the victim changed her story once again. By the time Centurion Ministries
completed their investigation
00:15:00
of Edward Honaker's
case, he had spent almost nine years in
prison for a crime
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he said he didn't commit. Centurion Ministries gained
access to the vaginal swab
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taken from the victim on
the night she was raped and sent it to Dr. Edward Blake
at Forensic Science Associates
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near Oakland, California. They also sent along a sample
of Edward Honaker's blood.
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Centurion ministries
paid for the DNA testing, which was approximately $5,000. Dr. Blake needed to identify
all of the genetic markers
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on the swab and then
determine whether Edward Honaker could have provided
any of the markers present.
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Dr. Blake performed a DNA
test called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. It's a test used when
the sample is small
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or has been degraded over time. PCR is ideally suited
to what you might consider
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historical investigations. That is, investigations that are
maybe more than five years old.
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NARRATOR: Dr. Blake assumed that
a cotton swab contained cells from three individuals,
the victim,
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her fiancee, and the rapist. After Dr. Blake analyzed
the DNA from the swab, he did not believe that
Edward Honaker was the rapist.
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The conclusions that could
be reached from the analysis of the vaginal swab alone
was that the sperm could not
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originate from Edward Honaker. NARRATOR: But Governor
George Allen wasn't so sure.
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He asked the Virginia
State Crime Lab to conduct their own analysis, and they
found something in the test
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they hadn't expected. We were not as absolute
in the conclusion that Forensic Science
Associates originally came to.
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We felt that there were some
other scenarios that might possibly explain the results.
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NARRATOR: The Virginia
Crime Lab noticed some genetic material they could
not identify or fully explain.
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It was a 3, 4 genetic
marker found in the sperm fraction of the PCR test. The mixture of all
of the DNA profiles
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and the similarities
presented by the combinations of the genetic materials
meant that Honaker could
00:17:30
not be eliminated
as the contributor of the 3, 4 genetic marker. Faced with competing
scientific opinions,
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Governor Allen asked police to
go back over the investigation one more time. As governor, you
want to make sure
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that you have all the evidence
and have it investigated, talk to the witness,
look at the evidence,
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run whatever tests can
be done on the evidence so that I have the full story. NARRATOR: When investigators
reinterviewed the victim
00:18:03
and told her that DNA
testing of her vaginal swab revealed some
inconsistencies, she
00:18:10
made a surprising confession. After the rape, she
married her fiance, but they had since divorced.
00:18:18
She admitted that at
the time of the rape, she was sexually involved
with another man in addition
00:18:25
to her fiance. It raised the question
about whether or not the sperm taken from
the victim's vagina
00:18:35
had any relevance to the
sexual assault on her. That's how Ed Honaker gets
brought back into the suit.
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NARRATOR: When DNA testing
is done in rape cases, all of the consensual sexual
partners have to be identified.
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What we have to account
for and understand is that in taking
samples like this, one has to account for prior
consensual sexual intercourse.
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And, therefore, one has
to account for the DNA types of those individuals. NARRATOR: Sheriffs located
the second boyfriend,
00:19:17
took his DNA sample,
and scientists performed a more sophisticated DNA
test called a polymarker
00:19:25
test, which types
five genes at once instead of just one or two. The polymarker DNA test
showed conclusively
00:19:34
that Edward Honaker
was not the contributor of the 3, 4 genetic marker. Edward Honaker was innocent.
00:19:44
In October of 1994, governor
Allen called Honaker in prison and told him he was a free man.
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He said, I feel that
that jury made a mistake. He said, as of this
moment, you are a free man.
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What he said after
that, I have no idea. NARRATOR: After 10
years in prison, Edward Honaker walked out of the
Nottaway Correctional Facility
00:20:13
into the arms of his
family and friends. He had missed the last 10
years of his children's lives.
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It was a gross
miscarriage of justice. The evidence of his innocence
was just overwhelming.
00:20:28
You'd have to be a
complete fool to miss it. There are many,
many limitations
00:20:33
on the testimony
of eyewitnesses, particularly in
situations where-- where there's a great deal
of not only physical trauma,
00:20:42
but emotional trauma. That's not a place
for people to make careful, critical observations.
00:20:48
I always knew deep in my
heart that I would one day get out of prison a free man.
00:20:56
Not only if-- not only get out
of prison, but proven that I did not commit that damn crime.
00:21:02
I always knew that. [music playing]