The Virginia attorney general’s office has joined in a request for a “writ of actual innocence” for a man convicted in Richmond of a rape that DNA shows he did not commit. Testing of sperm taken from the scene of the Jan. 3, 1984, rape did not find Thomas E. Haynesworth’s genetic profile, but it identified that of Leon W. Davis—known as the “Black Ninja”—a serial rapist serving seven life terms for other attacks.

A convict armed with state DNA test results has asked the Virginia Supreme Court to clear him of a 25-year-old rape now believed to have been committed by a notorious serial rapist. Testing of sperm taken from the scene of the Jan. 3, 1984, crime in Richmond failed to find Thomas E. Haynesworth’s genetic profile, but identified that of Leon W. Davis.