NORFOLK
The two teenage girls testified in court that they had “no doubt” Shaka M. Harrell was the person who attacked them. One girl recalled the attacker’s distinctive eyes. Both picked out Harrell using a picture from a high school yearbook.
On Thursday, after two months in jail, Harrell was cleared of the charges. DNA testing revealed that he didn’t do it.
Harrell had faced rape, sodomy and abduction charges stemming from a Jan. 9 attack on Verdun Avenue as the girls were walking to a school bus stop.
Prosecutor Jill Harris said the state forensics lab called Thursday morning to say that testing of evidence from the crime scene showed the samples did not come from Harrell.
Harris said she immediately notified Harrell’s lawyer, Kenneth Singleton, and called the Norfolk City Jail to have Harrell sent to Circuit Court. Judge Junius P. Fulton III dismissed the charges at Singleton’s request without objection from Harris.
Commonwealth’s attorney’s office spokeswoman Amanda Howie said Harris had repeatedly called the state lab to check on results as the case moved through the court system, and “recognized there was an urgency” to review the DNA.
Outside the courthouse, Harrell’s mother, Charlotte Moses, said she was thrilled and relieved – but not surprised.
“My son didn’t do this,” she said. “I know my son.”
Only a few days before he was charged, she said, his shyness made him scurry away from a cute girl who wanted to talk to him. She said her son had never been in trouble.
Moses said she broke down after Harrell was charged, but he reassured her.
“He said 'In three weeks, the DNA will come back, and I will be home,’” Moses said.
Harrell had been in custody since Jan. 10, with part of that time spent with adult inmates in the Norfolk City Jail, Singleton said.
“He experienced things no 16-year-old should have to,” Singleton said.
During Harrell’s preliminary hearing in January, Singleton questioned the victims closely about how they had identified Harrell as their attacker.
Both girls, ages 15 and 16, said the attacker wore a T-shirt wrapped around his face, showing only the eyes. One girl said the attacker moved the shirt to kiss her, and that’s when she was able to look at him.
The attack occurred behind a shed between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. in Fairmount Park, down the street from a church where the neighborhood civic league meets. The girls identified Harrell when police showed them a high school yearbook opened to a page with Harrell’s picture. The names of students on the page had been covered.
One girl testified she recognized the almond shape of Harrell’s eyes, and that she knew him because he rode her school bus the year before. She said she had “no doubt” that Harrell was the person who attacked her.
Both girls cried during their testimony and struggled as they recounted that day. The attack lasted more than 45 minutes, and the assailant had threatened them, implying that he had a gun, the girls said.
Singleton said Thursday that the DNA results call into question police procedures for identifying suspects.
Police spokesman Chris Amos said the department has no plans to review its picture identification procedures. He added that the evidence that exonerated Harrell was collected by the department’s forensic technicians.
Harris said the DNA results were run through a databank of known DNA samples and had not identified a different suspect.
Police are investigating a similar attack that happened Jan. 2 in the 3900 block of Robin Hood Road. In that case, two teenage sisters were walking when a man approached them, implied he had a gun and sexually assaulted them.
“The true assailant is still out on the street,” Singleton said.
Staff writer Matthew Roy contributed to this story.
Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com.
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In My Opinion. This young
In My Opinion.
This young man should get something for his ordeal.
However, he should be dancing safely in the street with joy he was released.
Here are some facts about Death Row:
Today we have approximately 3350 people on death row.
From 1973 thru 2007 we have released approximately 127
people that have been exonerated.
Now that’s a whopping 3.8%.
Average Stay on death row 9.5 years.
Get this! We have a 3.8% failure rate over 34 years.
Only 16 used DNA to have Charges Acquitted/Dismissed
How many innocent people have we executed-murdered?
Or do you want to believe this 3.8% failure rate for the last
34 years was just a fluke? Keep in mind only 16 used DNA
for Acquittal/Dismissal. Image being arrested, tried & convicted.
Use all of the appeals available and then being Executed.
Who do you prosecute when the state executes the innocent?
Some Info from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=110
Opinion On This Matter
I have to wonder if someone would feel the arrest was warranted, if they were the one that was charged with rape, and spent a few months locked up, until the matter was clarified. Due to a system that works, but works slowly, a double rapist was free then & still now. Unfortunately, the system is all we have until technology makes these results available in an expeditious manner. While I'm sure the young man is relieved that he has been vindicated legally, he did loose his freedom for quite a while, & claimed the DNA would clear him from the start. Regardless of fault, or the reason for the length of his incarceration, he may feel he is due compensation, & if so, I would tend to agree. As far as the police being responsible for his plight, malfeasance does not come to mind. It's unfortunate all the way around.
jmo
If any woman can say a man raped her and a judge holds the guy in jail without any other evidence, then the system needs to be changed. The only way to make this right is to make the parent's of the girls pay through the nose, I would say upwards of a hundred grand. I can imagine the stares they were giving that poor boy in the courtroom.
Accusation...
That is all there was. Until someone is tried and found guilty, they are innocent. That being said, to answer your question... yes, he should have been released until his day was had in court, or, at the very least, until the DNA evidence had been thoroughly tested.
Obviously each case has to be looked at on an individual bases, however, in this one, the eyewitness testimony was insufficient since there was DNA evidence to examin. DNA does not lie, unfortunatly, scared little girls do which is why eyewitness testimony, especially from the victim, is oftentimes so unrealiable as was the case here.
Futhermore, if some is charged with a crime, they should be let free until a court of law has deemed they are guilty of said crime. How is it justified in any situation to encarcerate someone who the system has deemed innocent?
jmo
As a just society we must expect and demand that the police, who work for the people, respect the rights of the people and perform their duties without mistake. That includes questioning witness identification of suspects. Why do you think the proesecutor was so interested in the DNA? Could it be that there were questions about the ID and procedure? With the questionability of identifying suspects by victims, of which there are many studies, isn't enough, when the one girl said she recognized him from the school bus and not the crime scene (eyes don't make an ID)she should have been discounted as a witness. But then opening a highschool annual to a specific page is practally leading the witness to a chosen suspect. There is so much wrong with this case that the Norfolk police should be chided for their lack of respect for the rights of Americans.
Many thanks to a professional and honest prosecutor. We need more like her!
Clarification
OK, let me make a concession here. First, I absolutely agree with the arrest, based on victim identification.
HOWEVER, I will concede that he didn't have to spend two months in an adult facility, or any facility at all. If he had no record of violent offenses (which I don't know, but will assume) he could have been remanded to the custody of his mother, on home detention. Ankle-bracelet house arrest, until DNA came back.
Makes me wonder if there are provisions in place for this type of thing.
I still think the system worked, but you are right, he didn't necessarily need to be incarcerated in an adult jail.
jmo
clewis
What do you suggest should have happened when the victims ID'd the guy? Yes, the system worked. Nobody can give him back those two months, but also nobody could have foreseen that the victims would have made a false ID. Unless you advocate leaving all accused criminals on the streets until trial, I suggest you appreciate the fact that the system did work.
I'll be waiting for you to tell me (and the police) what SHOULD happen when someone is accused of a crime, and the victims ID someone as the perpetrator.
jmo
System worked?
This young man spent two months of his life incarcerated for a crime that he did not committ and someone has the audactiy to imply that he should be happy that he got out at all? No one knows what he saw or experienced while in there and no one can give him that time back. Life is short and if even one second is taken from an individual unjustly, then there is no compensation good enough. If this is an example of the system working, then the system is broken.
system works
The police made an arrest based on victim testimony. They held him until the DNA came back, then released him. The system worked.
If any of you have suggestions that would enable our local police departments to do on-demand DNA testing, please share them. Never mind that the police have rules for evidence handling & chain of custody. Never mind that the DNA test is probably sent to an outside lab and has to wait in line.
I don't understand how people can claim false arrest or blame the cops. If anyone is at fault, it's the victims who misidentified him. Should they be held liable for the false ID?
As far as innocent until proven guilty, do you advocate letting all accused rapists out on bail while the investigation is being conducted, or just the ones that will eventually be acquitted?
Celebrate - the system worked.
jmo
It may have taken that long
It may have taken that long to get the DNA results back. They can't get results that quickly as CSI and other TV shows would allude to. But two months does seem a bit long.
Duh
This young man was charged with serious crimes, yet DNA was not used first as a check to make sure they had the right person? Do the right thing, compensate this honest person, change your procedures before you repeat the mistake.
Case in point
Now where are all those who, a few days ago, were crying out for the validity of the new french-kissing law that could permanently label one a sex offender based on the word of a ten year old that your tongue breached her lips? Do you remember the movie "Wild Things?" This kind of vindictive fabrication happens all the time. Why do prosecutors not require more than the words of the victim before pressing charges? These girls' parents should have to compensate this man who most likely must play catch up for the next 5 years to get his life on track. What if it was deliberate?
Shoddy investigation to behind
I have no law enforcement or investigative experience, but....
....Whatever happened to questioning the suspect to get his/her side of the matter? You just go and arrest him/her because the victim(s) said he/she has the same eyes as the assailant?
Sounds like these detectives need to watch some of their peers on "The First 48" in action.
DNA
Thank God for DNA not being prone to error in matters of identification. What about the time the 16 year old spent, & even in an adult facility, while being detained for something he apparently didn't do? In Virginia does the state, or cities tend to willingly compensate incorrectly imprisoned suspects? Or does civil court handle all such matters? I hope the investigation of the rapes that he was charged with, didn't stop or slow in the interim. As it was said in the story, there is a violent person with sexually aberrant behavior still out there.
False Arrest........
How will this young man be compensated for his false arrest and the time he had to be incarcerated unjustly? Further, why is it ok for the police to make a mistake and not have to pay a penalty, and yet not alright for the common citizen?
innocence lost
What happened to innocent until proven guilty? This young man's life was taken away. Don't misunderstand me, my prayers go out to the young ladies for all they had to endure. I pray they find the person who did this, because no one ever deserves to be violated. My concern is, with all of the new technology everday, why did it have to take so long before they determined he was not guilty of this horrible crime? To the young man and the young ladies if you read this remember there was a reason for you to have to experiance this. Take this time to seek God for the answer. God Bless You.