At the urging of then-Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the General Assembly switched “could” to “would” in Virginia’s writ of actual innocence statute. The amendment took effect July 1, but the Virginia Court of Appeals has decided it makes little, if any, difference. ... Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and author of “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong,” said, “The legislature really did no more than make minor alterations to the statute.”