MAIP Client David Wayne Boyce is serving two life sentences for the 1990 murder of his roommate, Timothy Kurt Askew, 35, at the Econo Lodge motel in Newport News, Virginia.  Police and prosecutors claimed that Mr. Boyce, a young man with no criminal history, stabbed Mr. Askew repeatedly, killing him and then robbing him.  There was no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony that linked Mr. Boyce to this crime.  Mr. Boyce has maintained his innocence since his initial arrest.

Mr. Boyce was convicted largely based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant Herman Preston Elkins, a self-confessed mentally ill repeat offender.  In 2004, Mr. Elkins called Mr. Boyce’s counsel and recanted his trial testimony against Mr. Boyce.  He claimed he was coerced by the Newport News Police prior to Mr. Boyce’s trial.  Also in 2004, DNA evidence positively excluded Mr. Boyce from the physical evidence found at the crime scene.

MAIP attorneys and investigators have been working on Mr. Boyce’s case with lawyers from Howrey LLP and Hunton & Williams LLP since 2005, when they filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in response to Mr. Elkins’ unsolicited phone call.  The petition has not yet been decided but is expected to move forward with the recent appointment of a new judge - Norfolk Circuit Court Judge John R. Doyle III.

In addition to asserting his innocence, Mr. Boyce’s team contends that the police and prosecutors violated the Constitution by withholding potentially crucial evidence from his counsel prior to trial, including: 1) Mr. Elkins’ history of mental illness and long-standing relationship with the police department, 2) a memo showing that another person had confessed to the crime, 3) reports that exclude Mr. Boyce’s fingerprints from those found at the crime scene, and 4) a photograph of Mr. Boyce taken the day of the murder that contradicts an alleged identification of the murderer.

Mr. Boyce’s team believes that this withheld evidence would have changed the outcome of Mr. Boyce’s trial.  Mr. Boyce’s attorneys are hopeful that the judge will find that the prosecution had a duty to turn over this evidence prior to trial, grant the petition for habeas corpus and order a new trial for Mr. Boyce after 19 years in prison.          

Click here to read a story in the Newport News Daily Press about the Boyce case.   

Click here to learn more about how "snitch" testimony can lead to wrongful convictions.

Technorati Tags: MAIP, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, Wrongfully Convicted, David Boyce

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