Other Convicted Innocents
Troy Webb
Year of Incident: 1988
Jurisdiction: Virginia
Charge: Kidnapping, Robbery
Conviction: Kidnapping, Robbery
Sentence: 47 years
Year of Conviction: 1989
Year of Exoneration: 1996
Sentence Served: 7 years
Real perpetrator found? Not yet
Compensation? Not yet
On January 24, 1988, the victim, a young cocktail waitress, was coming
home from work when, as she got out of her car, a black man pointed a
gun at her face and demanded her money and her purse. She handed them
over and her assailant led her from the lighted area in front of her
apartment building to a darkened area at the corner of the building. He
threatened her with the gun and forced her to remove her hose and
underpants and bend over. He proceeded to rape her. Afterward, the
victim suggested they each go their separate ways and the assailant
agreed. The victim watched him walk away and then ran into her house
and called first her mother and then the police. Troy Webb was later
arrested for this crime following an identification of his picture.
At trial, the prosecution presented evidence that the victim had picked
out a photograph of Webb at the police station. After declaring that
she was ninety-nine percent sure that Webb was her attacker, she picked
out another, younger, picture of him. Serology revealed that the semen
in the rape kit and on the victim's underwear was from a type A
secretor, which was inconclusive because Webb was found to be a
nonsecretor.
All of Webb's appeals and challenges were unsuccessful until DNA
testing was done.
In 1996, Webb gained access to the evidence for the purposes of DNA
testing. The results of the testing excluded him as the perpetrator of
this crime. He eventually filed for and was granted executive clemency
from the governor. He had spent almost eight years in prison.