Virginia Hench

The Hawaii Innocence Project director is on a mission to free innocent people from prison

By Lee Catterall

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 02, 2011

~~<p><a span="" style="color: #0000FF;" target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/pDAqo2">Alvin F. Jardine III</a> was set free recently after nearly 20 years behind bars; he had been wrongly identified as the man who raped a 25-year-old woman at her Maui home in 1992.</p>
<p><a span="" style="color: #0000FF;" target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/nEMCQw">The Hawaii Innocence Project</a>, headed by University of Hawaii law professor Virginia E. Hench, put forth DNA evidence that Jardine was not the assailant, even though the victim had identified him as such. The group put forth evidence that a tablecloth covering a “papa san” bowl chair where the victim said the rapist had sat during and after the assault had four DNA samples, none of which came from Jardine, whose 1992 conviction followed two trials that had ended in hung juries.</p>
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Alvin F. Jardine III was set free recently after nearly 20 years behind bars; he had been wrongly identified as the man who raped a 25-year-old woman at her Maui home in 1992.

The Hawaii Innocence Project, headed by University of Hawaii law professor Virginia E. Hench, put forth DNA evidence that Jardine was not the assailant, even though the victim had identified him as such. The group put forth evidence that a tablecloth covering a “papa san” bowl chair where the victim said the rapist had sat during and after the assault had four DNA samples, none of which came from Jardine, whose 1992 conviction followed two trials that had ended in hung juries. Login for more...