Hunton & Williams LLP Wins Rare Victory in Teen Capital Murder Case

NEW YORK — February 29, 2012 — A federal judge in Roanoke, Virginia, yesterday granted full habeas corpus relief in an innocent teen's capital murder case based on the "outrageous misconduct" of Culpeper law enforcement officials.

More than a decade ago, Michael Wayne Hash, who was just 19 years old at the time, was convicted of capital murder in Culpeper County and sentenced to life imprisonment without the chance of parole. There was no physical evidence implicating Hash or the two other teenage boys charged with the crime. Hash was convicted based only on the testimony of three suspect witnesses. Hash's direct appeals and a state habeas corpus petition were all denied, notwithstanding evidence of police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Convinced that Hash was innocent and that his trial was unfair, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP) and law firm Hunton & Williams took up Hash's case and, on April 15, 2010, filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia and undertook an investigation that revealed a pattern of misconduct on the part of Culpeper officials.

Late yesterday, Judge James Turk granted Hash (who is now 31 years old) full federal habeas corpus relief — a rare victory. After logging more than 2,000 pro bono hours on this case, the team from Hunton & Williams, led by partner Matthew P. Bosher and investigator Stanley J. Lapekas of the TurnStone Investigative Group, along with MAIP, were able to prove that Hash's conviction was based entirely on contrived, manufactured witness testimony and tainted by extensive police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Judge Turk stated in his opinion that "the Court finds that Hash is entitled to habeas corpus relief…[T]he Court is disturbed by the miscarriage of justice that occurred in this case and finds that Hash's trial is an example of an extreme malfunction in the state criminal justice." Judge Turk cited "a cavalcade of evidence demonstrating police and prosecutorial misconduct," including:

• Orchestrating a transfer to place Mr. Hash in a prison 50 miles from Culpeper to spend one night in a cell block with a professional snitch, creating a pretext for the transfer, and then covering it up until December of 2011;
• Concealing promises to assist two prosecution witnesses in exchange for their false testimony against Hash;
• Failing to turn over critical exculpatory materials, including reports that key prosecution witnesses failed polygraph examinations; and
• Coaching prosecution witnesses.

The opinion is available here.

"We are thrilled that our client has finally been exonerated," said Bosher. "There has never been any credible evidence that Mr. Hash had anything to do with this crime. He spent the last 12 years — his entire adult life — in prison for a crime he did not commit because the system completely failed him. In particular, the conduct of law enforcement officials in Culpeper was outrageous and offensive."

Shawn Armbrust, Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, said, "the Court's opinion validates what our client, his family, and his legal team have said from the beginning — that Mike Hash did not commit this crime and that the tactics used to obtain his conviction were reprehensible. We trust the Culpeper authorities will now do the right thing and allow for his immediate release, so he can go home to his family as quickly as possible."