Dona McAdams started photographing "The Face of Innocence" because of her interest in social issues and incarceration and release as a result of science. She conducts participatory photography workshops with New York City mental health and homeless populations, teaches photography at The Point in the South Bronx, and has authored two books: Caught in the Act, a book of performance photographs, and The Garden of Eden, about people living with schizophrenia.
WILLIAM HARRIS was a talented young athlete, with college scholarships and a bright future ahead of him. Harris' promising future collapsed in December 1984, when a young woman was sexually assaulted near her home in Rand, West Virginia. Based in large part upon the questionable forensic science of police serologist Fred Zain, Harris was charged with the crime and sentenced to 10 to 20 years in the maximum security West Virginia Penitentiary. LARRY HOLDREN as charged with six counts of sexual assault in December 1982, when a woman who was jogging along a boulevard in Charleston, West Virginia, was dragged into a culvert and repeatedly assaulted. Holdren was convicted upon the eyewitness testimony of the victim and the eyewitness testimony of an off-duty FBI agent, who testified that he was nearby and observed a person he identified as Holdren near the scene of the crime. Holdren was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in the West Virginia Penitentiary. JIM RICHARDSON returned to his home in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, late one night in May 1988. As he climbed his porch steps, he smelled smoke and noticed his neighbor's house bursting into flames. He kicked open the neighbor's door and rescued a three-year-old child from the flames. When the fire was extinguished, the body of the child's mother was found in the charred ruins. The victim had been bound and gagged, and sexually assaulted. When State Police serologist Fred Zain claimed to have found Jim's genetic markers in the sexual assault fluids, Richardson was transformed from hero to villain. He was charged and convicted of rape, murder and arson, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
GEORGE CASTELLE is the Chief Public Defender in Charleston, West Virginia and represented the three individuals described here. A 1993 investigation commissioned by the West Virginia Supreme Court resulted in a finding of fraud in every case handled by State Trooper Fred Zain where there was sufficient evidence left to review. Castelle continues to work to expose questionable forensic police practices that lead to the conviction and imprisonment of innocent individuals.
RESOLUTION OF THE CASE:
Harris was freed when the remaining sexual assault evidence was tested for DNA. The DNA results cleared Harris of all charges.
RESOLUTION OF THE CASE:
Holdren was released after 15 years in prison when DNA testing of the sexual assault fluids conclusively proved that he had not committed the crime.
RESOLUTION OF THE CASE:
Richardson was freed when DNA testing of the remaining crime scene evidence failed to connect him in any way to the crime.