July 28
OKLAHOMA:
Dewey George Moore, an inmate on Oklahoma's death row since the mid 1980s,
died this morning at OSP after a short but serious illness. Dewey was
recently diagnosed with lung cancer, but had been complaining about poor
health and shortness of breath for over a year.
Dewey's case was unique. He was convicted solely on hair and fiber
microscopic comparisons, a voodoo "science" long discredited and essentially
abandoned. The "analysis" was performed by OCPD crime lab employee Janice
Davis, a contemporary of Joyce Gilchrist. Recent resting of about 2/3 of the
hair evidence with DNA technology showed that Davis was wrong. All but 3
hairs were excluded as being either Dewey's or the victim's, and the 3
that could not be excluded were inconclusive -- not enough to support a
conviction.
It is sad that Dewey passed away before we could get him a new trial and
perhaps clear his name; it is sad he spent so long on death row in terrible
conditions while his appeals languished; it is sad that the prison health
care system could not have responded sooner and prolonged Dewey's life.
Steve Presson---OCADP
Norman
