Keith Allen Harward, convicted of rape and murder decades ago, should be freed because he's innocent, Virginia's highest court said this week.
According to The Associated Press, the Virginia Supreme Court granted Keith Allen Harward's petition for a writ of actual innocence on Thursday after new DNA tests failed to identify Harward's genetic profile in sperm left at the crime scene. Harward received a life sentence for the 1982 killing of Jesse Perron and the rape of his wife.
The order came a day after Attorney General Mark Herring said Harward was innocent of the crimes that have kept him behind bars since 1983.
Herring says in a statement that he is glad Harward will soon be reunited with his family.
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