Dec. 19 TEXAS: Effort to work on inmates' behalf Saying there is "plenty of injustice and false conviction in North Texas," defense lawyers are joining forces with faculty and students from 6 universities in the North Texas Innocence Project, which will investigate Texas prison inmates' claims. Led by Fort Worth lawyer Mike Ware, the program will review cases from inmates convicted in Tarrant, Dallas and other North Texas counties. Once a claim is considered valid, there will be an extensive follow-up investigation and, in some instances, litigation, Ware said. "I think there are a lot of problems with the system, and I think this is one way to correct it," Ware said. "I'm not maintaining the prisons are full of innocent people, because they are not. But if it is 1/2 of 1 %, that's a lot of innocent people." The project will be based primarily at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, with 40 criminal-justice and law-school students working with lawyers on the cases. The UT-Arlington students, who have been meeting for almost a year, have identified a murder in Tyler, a sexual assault in Dallas and a robbery in Fort Worth for further review. Under the direction of licensed lawyers, the local students will work with law students from Texas Tech University, Texas Southern University and the University of Houston as well as journalism students from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. "I think there is a need for it because people need to have confidence that the system works," said John Stickels, a criminal justice professor at UT-Arlington and a former prosecutor. "And there needs to be an organization that looks at the cases that fall through the cracks." About a year ago, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, often criticized for being indifferent to the claims of wrongful prosecution by prison inmates, joined in the push to create an innocence network that would use law students to investigate cases. At the court's urging, the Texas Legislature set aside $800,000 over the next 2 years to support innocence projects at four Texas law schools. The law schools at the University of Houston, the University of Texas, Texas Tech and Texas Southern will get $200,000 each over the next two years. Stickels started an innocence project at UT-Arlington last year, but because it was unconnected with a law school, it did not receive state assistance. The fledgling group reviewed cases during the past school year, but Stickels said it needed the support and expertise of the established groups at the other universities. The University of Houston students will probably initially review requests, sending letters and questionnaires back to the inmates and helping cull cases for more extensive review, Stickels said. The Texas Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center began in 2000 and has processed more than 6,000 requests for assistance. As a result of its work, 2 inmates have been released, and a half-dozen requests for clemency or new trials are pending. UH students have been working with journalism students at St. Thomas University and Lamar University in Beaumont. Morris Overstreet, a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge, directs the innocence project at Texas Southern, and lawyer Jeff Blackburn, who helped represent the more than 40 people wrongfully accused of drug charges in Tulia, is the director at the Texas Tech School of Law. "It is clear from the casual observer that there is plenty of injustice and false conviction in North Texas," Blackburn said. Having Ware direct the North Texas Innocence Project was key to getting it off the ground, Blackburn said. Ware, a top criminal-defense lawyer who has practiced law since 1983, has handled a number of high-profile cases. "This is a special deal," Ware said. "When we are acting on behalf of one of these guys, we are not wearing our criminal-defense-attorney hats; we are trying to get at the truth." Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry said he does not object to the innocence network. He said that the work of such projects depends greatly on the person running them and that he respects Ware. "If in fact such people are actually innocent, you can't argue against that. Nobody can," Curry said. (source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram) **************** Lineup procedures have changed since Cantu case Photo lineups that helped convict a San Antonio man executed for a 1984 murder would violate current police guidelines in Bexar County, where prosecutors are investigating claims that the man was wrongly sentenced to death. Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed, who set the 1993 execution date for Ruben Cantu when she was a state district judge, has said she's most concerned with whether criminal behavior led to a wrongful execution and if another suspect remains at large. The lone witness whose testimony implicated Cantu, then 17, identified him as one of two teenage attackers in the fatal shooting of Pedro Gomez during a robbery. Juan Moreno identified Cantu, who was charged with capital murder, the third time he was shown a lineup that included Cantu's mugshot. No other photos were used multiple times. New police procedures are aimed at reducing misinterpretation and the power of suggestion, according to a report in Sunday's editions of the San Antonio Express-News. Current San Antonio police guidelines require that if one suspect's photo is shown in multiple lineups, at least 2 other mugshots used in the initial viewing should be included. Moreno now says he was afraid of authorities and felt pressured by them to point the finger at Cantu. "None of the photos I was shown were the real culprit," Moreno, 40, told the newspaper. Moreno didn't identify Cantu the first or second time he saw a photo lineup, which took place months apart. The day after the second try, a different detective showed Moreno a new lineup that again included Cantu's photo. Moreno then picked out Cantu and identified him as the killer during the 1985 trial. Showing separate lineups with one mugshot in common gives an obvious message about investigators' focus, eyewitness identification experts say. "That's an incredible amount of pressure which says, 'You gave us an answer we're not accepting.'" said Gary L. Wells, an Iowa State University psychologist and a specialist in eyewitness identifications. Police say Moreno's body language contradicted his claim the shooter's picture wasn't in the lineups. They believe he recognized Cantu from the start but was too afraid to identify him. One detective testified that Moreno avoided looking at Cantu's picture during the first photo lineup and another testified Moreno named Cantu but wouldn't point to his mug shot. Lineup procedures vary throughout the state. But the governor's nine-member Criminal Justice Advisory Council has been considering lineup procedures, said Roy S. Malpass, a founder of the Eyewitness Identification Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at El Paso. The council was created in June by Gov. Rick Perry and charged with reviewing the state's court system and recommending reforms to the Legislature by year's end. The prosecutor who defended Cantu's conviction on appeal said those investigating should agree the case raised questions about eyewitness identification procedures. "In my opinion, the best thing we can do for Mr. Cantu is to address those questions for other cases," said Barbara Parker Hervey, who's now a judge on the state's highest criminal court (source: Associated Press) COLORADO: Man Once On Death Row Gets Sentenced To Life In Prison----Robert Harlan's Death Sentence Overturned Because Jurors Consulted Bible Convicted killer Robert Harlan was officially resentenced to life in prison Monday after having his death sentence overturned because a jurors consulted the Bible during deliberations. In March, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling that a jury went beyond evidence at his trial for the 1994 kidnapping, raping and slaying of cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney, 25. The U.S. Supreme Court in October refused without comment to consider reinstating Harlan's death sentence. Prosecutors had said Harlan would likely be resentenced to life in prison. In resentencing Harlan Monday, Adams County District Court Judge Scott Crabtree said his hands were tied and the sentence he imposed was "mandated" by the judicial system. "It could be said you may have avoided the death penalty by a technicality," he told Harlan. "I have no discretion here," Crabtree said. Maloney's sister, Kerri Gemeinhardt, said she's disappointed. "I'm unhappy that he didn't get the death sentence," Gemeinhardt said after the court hearing. "But as long as he never gets out I'm satisfied." Harlan was convicted in 1995 of kidnapping, raping and murdering Maloney. He also was convicted of shooting and paralyzing Jaquie Creazzo, a motorist who tried to help Maloney escape from Harlan. Creazzo was wounded after she pulled over and Maloney jumped into her car. Creazzo, who was driving toward a police station, crashed after she was wounded by several shots fired into her car. Harlan then pulled Maloney out of Creazzo's car. "It's a damn shame the (death penalty) verdict will not be carried out," Bob Grant, the former Adams County District Attorney who prosecuted the original case, said after the hearing. Kathleen Lord, Harlan's defense attorney, said the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling is correct and justice is served. "An eye for an eye is not the law of Colorado," Lord said, referring to the jury's use of the Old Testament. "It was a serious error of the law," she said. "It was not right." (source: TheDenverChannel) ILLINOIS: DNA at heart of '86 case----Lawyers say results clear man convicted in Waukegan rape Recent DNA tests completed on newly discovered evidence provide "irrefutable scientific proof" that a man convicted of a 1986 rape in Waukegan and serving a 60-year prison sentence is innocent, according to documents filed in Illinois Appellate Court. An emergency motion was filed Friday on behalf of Bennie Starks, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 69-year-old Waukegan woman, alleging that DNA tests performed on a vaginal swab exclude Starks as the woman's assailant. Vanessa Potkin and Barry Scheck, of the New York-based Innocence Project, filed the emergency motion, asking the Appellate Court to consider the new test results or send the case back to Lake County Circuit Court for a new hearing. Michael Mermel, a Lake County prosecutor, said in an interview, however, that he does not believe Starks is innocent and that he would continue to fight Starks' release. Despite testimony at the trial from the victim that she had not engaged in consensual sex in the 2 weeks prior to the attack, Mermel said he now believes differently. "She testified to a bunch of different things," Mermel said. "It doesn't matter, because the rest of the evidence is overwhelming." At one point earlier in the case, Mermel said the DNA found on the victim's underwear was the result of consensual sex and "bad hygiene." At the trial, Starks was identified by the victim as her attacker. She said he pulled her into a ravine and beat, bit and raped her. A Gurnee dentist said he matched Starks' teeth to a bite mark on the victim, and Starks' jacket was found near the scene of the alleged attack. Starks said he had spent the evening in a nearby tavern and had been robbed of his money and coat on his way home. A dry-cleaning receipt found in the pocket of his coat, which was found near the scene, led police to Starks. The battle over Starks' claim of innocence has dragged out over the last several years. In 2002, lawyers for Starks filed a motion for a new trial after DNA tests conducted on the victim's underwear isolated a male profile that was not Starks'. Mermel opposed the new trial, arguing that the male DNA could have been on the woman's underwear from a previous consensual sexual encounter and noted that the victim said she had removed her underwear after she was attacked, but before she was sexually assaulted. At the time of that argument, Mermel said, "If this DNA, the non-matching [to Starks'] DNA, were to come from the victim herself, I would be standing over there advocating the side that the defense has in the case," according to a transcript of the hearing. The motion for a new trial was denied. When Potkin and Scheck requested the swab taken from the victim at the hospital, Mermel said he was told the swab no longer existed. But then, in 2004, the swab was found in the Northern Illinois Crime Lab. At first, Lake County Circuit Judge Christopher Starck refused to allow the swab to be tested. In the meantime, the defense lawyers discovered laboratory reports by a crime lab analyst who performed blood tests on the evidence in 1986, as DNA testing was not then available. Defense lawyers contended that the lab reports showed that Starks should have been excluded, but the crime lab analyst testified that her tests showed Starks could have been the attacker. According to Potkin, the lab reports showed that the woman was a blood type O and a non-secretor, which means her blood type can only be determined from her blood and not from vaginal secretions. The lab report stated that Starks has blood type B and is a secretor, which means his blood type will be evident in all his body fluids, including semen. The analyst, who no longer works at the crime lab, reported finding evidence of the presence of only blood type O on the underwear and the vaginal swab. The source of that type O substance cannot be the victim's because she is a non-secretor and it cannot be Starks because he is a type B, the defense lawyers say. The existence of male DNA on the swab indicates the victim had sex near the time of the assault. Noting that the victim testified under oath that she had not had consensual sex for two weeks prior to the attack, experts say that it is extremely unlikely that DNA from a sexual encounter would still be present in a woman's vagina two weeks later and that, unless the victim lied, the DNA came from the sexual assault. At Starks' trial, a public-aid worker testified that after the attack, the victim told her that she had not been raped, but had been physically assaulted by someone acting on behalf of people jealous of her sexual relationship with someone else. On Friday, Mermel said that the tests performed on the vaginal swab were Y-STR tests, a different type of DNA test than was performed on the underwear. He said that he was awaiting the results of a retest of the underwear using a Y-STR test and that if the male profile on the underwear was the same as on the vaginal swab, he would continue to argue that the tests "prove nothing" because he now believes all the DNA was the result of consensual sex. The motion filed Friday on behalf of Starks was sent to the Appellate Court because arguments are scheduled for Tuesday in the appeal of the lower court decision to deny Starks' motion for a new trial. "While there is enough before this court presently to warrant a reversal of the lower court's ruling and mandate a new trial, the new DNA test results go even further," the motion stated. "[T]hey cut to the truth, establish Mr. Starks' factual innocence." (source: Chicago Tribune) KANSAS: Efforts to stop death penalty commended The death penalty is flawed. Very flawed. When there is a possibility of innocent people being killed for crimes they may not have committed, those in power should take notice. I commend Sister Therese Bangert and Sen. David Haley for their efforts to try to put a stop to the death penalty in Kansas. It's always nice and smart to have someone in power to help with difficult situations like those Sister Therese is facing. She reminds me of Sister Helen Prejean. She, like Sister Therese, started ministering to the poor in New Orleans in 1981. While living in the St. Thomas housing project, a low-income housing development near the Garden District, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier - a convicted killer of 2 teenagers, sentenced to die in the electric chair at Louisiana's Angola State Prison. It was her correspondence with Sonnier that inspired her to pen her 1993 best seller, "Dead Man Walking," which was made into a movie. 15 years after she started championing against the death penalty, she witnessed 5 executions in Louisiana and today educates the public about the death penalty by lecturing, organizing and writing. Now, Sister Therese has picked up the pace in this part of the world and is lobbying to make changes to this barbaric way of punishing the guilty, or in many cases the not guilty. It's a serious issue many don't even think about. But the recent killing of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, the former Crips gang leader, has put the subject back on the front pages of newspapers across the country. "He wasn't killed, he was executed," someone at the office said. He was killed, plain and simple. When you put someone to death that's killing, to me. The 1st established death penalty laws date as far back as 18th Century B.C., in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, it was Britain that influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country. It was European settlers, who brought the practice of capital punishment here. The 1st recorded execution in the new colonies was Capt. George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. In 1612, Virginia Gov. Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral and Martial Laws, which provided the death penalty for even minor offenses such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians. The New York Colony instituted the Duke's Laws of 1665. Under these laws, offenses such as striking one's mother or father, or denying the "true God," were punishable by death. I could see a lot of kids getting in trouble with this one and atheists would really have a problem with trying to stay alive. Discussions on the death penalty are as old as yesterday's news. I'll never forget a conversation I had with the Rev. Gerard Senecal of Atchison years ago. I was an administrator at Benedictine College then and served as the business office manager at the college and Father Gerard was its president. I hadn't met a priest like him before. Coming from south Louisiana where nearly everyone is Catholic, priests and sisters played a huge part in our daily lives. They usually were meek and saintly and we were taught to always respect them and never, never talk back to them. Father Gerard speaks his mind, never minces words, and stands fast in his convictions. He encourages debate and "difference of opinion" in people. He still is a no-nonsense man, who expects everyone to love God, work hard and enjoy life. I love that about him. So, imagine my surprise that day in the cafeteria years ago, when we were having lunch, that the subject of the death penalty came up. "I believe in the death penalty," he said sternly. I didn't know if he was serious or just trying to get me started in serious debate, but I adamantly disagreed with him. "How could you say that, you're Catholic?" I asked. "What if someone raped a baby or killed their mother?" he asked. "Then I think they should hang them upside down from a tree, take an X-acto knife, cut little slits in their skin and put rock salt in the wounds," I said. "But that's cruel," he said laughing. When I talked to him on Friday and asked him if he remembered our talk he said, "Well, I've changed my mind since then. They're making too many mistakes. Too many innocent people are being killed." He's right. National Public Radio reported Friday that a man, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of his estranged wife's mother, conducted his own investigation in prison. It seems he found a fellow prisoner he suspected had performed the killing. He managed to take this prisoner's cigarette butt, hid it in his Bible and sent it to his attorney. DNA revealed that in fact this fellow prisoner committed the murder and this poor man had already served seven years for a crime he didn't commit. Until attorneys and judges can get a little smarter on this issue, and legislatures and politicians create and make better laws to protect the innocent, there are going to be more people on death row waiting to be killed for crimes that maybe, just maybe they didn't commit. Father Gerard is right. The system is flawed. Too many mistakes are being made. Too many people are being held in death row for no reason. Until more people like Sister Therese, Sister Helen and Sen. Haley stand up for "doing the right thing," nothing will change. In Kansas there were 57 executions before 1976. Since then, 7 people have been waiting to die. And, in Kansas, life sentences without parole is an option. However, a defendant can get death for a felony, even though they were not responsible for a murder. How stupid is that? (source: Marilyn Fontenot is the managing editor for The Kansan) UTAH: Convicted murderer Elroy Tillman will not face the death penalty. The Utah Attorney General's Office says it will not seek the death penalty against Tillman, but attorney general Mark Shurtleff vows to do everything he can to keep Tillman locked up for life. Tillman was convicted of capital murder in 1983 for the killing of Mark Schoenfeld. The Utah Supreme Court reversed Tillman's death sentence, but kept his conviction intact. Prosecutors say Tillman -- now 70- years- old -- will likely die in prison. (source: KSL News) NORTH CAROLINA: N.C. death penalty committee considers fairness of punishment North Carolina's death penalty system is racially unfair, too broad, and too costly, witnesses told state lawmakers on Monday. Others, testifying before a House study committee, said the system is as fair as is humanly possible. In the coming months, the 20-member House Select Study Committee on Capital Punishment will sort through these and other issues related to the "accuracy and fairness" of North Carolina's death penalty. This includes prosecutorial misconduct and whether any innocent people may be on death row. "If the goal is to have a perfect system when humans are involved, I don't think you're going to meet that goal," C. Branson Vickory III, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, told the committee on Monday during its 1st meeting. He said changes to the death penalty system over the past decade have helped cut in half the annual number of capital cases. These changes include giving district attorneys more discretion on whether to seek the death penalty, prohibiting the execution of mentally retarded defendants, and more disclosure of evidence between attorneys. "Our role is not to convict but to see that justice is done," said Vickory, who represents Wayne, Greene, and Lenoir counties. Others said the system appears to place a disproportionate number of minorities on death row. While whites make up about 70 % of the state's general population, blacks represent nearly 13 %, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. But about 55 % of death row inmates are black while whites account for 35 % of some 170 people on North Carolina's death row. Vickory said the racial makeup of death row inmates is close to the overall makeup of the prison population. He said a lack of education and poverty are to blame for the imbalance. Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, said he was "bothered" that district attorneys have the authority to decide whether to seek the death penalty. He suggested that power could be contributing to the racial disparity on death row. Experts said juries can differ greatly in their sentencing, even when the facts of a murder trial are similar. Superior Court Judge Narley Cashwell told the panel that he's presided over nearly identical murder trials that ended with different sentences. In a Johnston County trial, white defendants were sentenced to death. In Cumberland County, black defendants got life in prison. "I don't have an explanation," Cashwell said. Several speakers said North Carolina should consider narrowing the scope of its death penalty statute, which would further reduce the number of capital trials that often are later changed to lesser penalties. Committee members said they want more information on several issues, including the reversal rate of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals - which includes North Carolina - in death penalty cases; how many people have been convicted of murder over the past 10-15 years; and the jury makeup in the state's capital cases. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, created the committee when a bill seeking a 2-year moratorium on carrying out executions during a death penalty study failed to reach a vote. Experts said they welcome the scrutiny the committee will provide. "Most debate has been on whether to have a death penalty or not instead of how to improve it," said Malcom Ray "Tye" Hunter Jr., executive director of the state's Indigent Defense Services, which provides legal representation to poor defendants. The General Assembly will take up the panel's recommendations next year. (source: Associated Press) LOUISIANA: D.A. to seek death penalty for double murder Prosecutors in Webster Parish today obtained a 1st-degree murder indictment and filed notice they intend to seek the death penalty for a man accused of killing his former girlfriend and her daughter in a vicious knife attack. Omar Gibson, 29, is charged with the murders of Yolunda Warren, 29, and her 7-year-old daughter, Anastasia, at an apartment in Cullen in north Webster Parish last month. Gibson was arraigned today in Webster District Court in Minden and pleaded not guilty. District Attorney Schuyler Marvin filed notice he intends to seek the death penalty. Investigators said Gibson was Warren's ex-boyfriend. She and her daughter were found murdered after neighbors called police about a disturbance in their apartment. Both victims were stabbed more than a dozen times. Marvin said today he plans to file manslaughter charges against a Minden man accused of shooting a 19-year-old after he came home and found the young man with his 16-year-old daughter. Authorities said Almer Odom, 63, told them he came home from work and found his daughter with Lakelvin Manning, who been told to stay away from the residence. Odom told authorities that Manning tried to hide in the house. Odom, who had gotten a gun, told authorities he shot Manning in the shoulder when me made a move toward him, Marvin said. Marvin called it a "classic manslaughter case" and that he would not file more serious murder charges that would require a life prison sentence. Awaiting action before the grand jury is the case against Bertie Hicks, 19, of Dubberly. He is jailed on suspicion he caused the death of his two-month-old daughter, Elizabeth, last month by shaking her. He was baby-sitting his daughter while her mother was at work. (source: KTBS News) PENNSYLVANIA: DNA Evidence: Man seeks DNA test to clear him in killing The 1981 trial of John Dolenc, accused of killing his wife Patricia, was rife with factual controversies. But his lawyer told the jury one thing was certain: Since Mr. Dolenc and his wife had the same blood type, there was no way to tie blood splatters found near her body to the former South Hills man. "Well, I can stand here and say I want you to infer it's John because he had a cut on his finger," countered Kim Riester, the Allegheny County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Mr. Dolenc. "And then you decide if it was Patty's (blood), was it John's or somebody else's." Mr. Dolenc was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 24 years later, the same prosecutor's office under different leadership has fought Mr. Dolenc's request to conduct DNA tests on as many as 79 blood-stained specimens found at the crime scene. DNA tests were not available in 1981, but now they could determine whether "it was Patty's (blood), was it John's or somebody else's." The district attorney contends that other circumstantial evidence was enough to convict Mr. Dolenc, anyway. The defense argues otherwise. Mr. Dolenc is one of 15 people in Allegheny County seeking DNA tests under a 2002 state law that allows anyone facing the death penalty or life in prison to request DNA tests that could prove their "actual innocence." Only 2 have been granted. One resulted in the exoneration of a Homewood man who had served nearly 19 years for a rape conviction. Test results are pending in the other. 3 requests have been denied, and the rest remain under consideration. But it is Mr. Dolenc's case, now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, that has raised the knotty issue of exactly how conclusive DNA tests must promise to be before a judge should order them to assess a convict's claim of innocence. Last year, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald Machen ordered DNA tests in Mr. Dolenc's case. But the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed his ruling, saying that blood tests were unlikely to exonerate the former heating and cooling worker. Now, both sides hope the state's highest court will clarify the meaning of the words "actual innocence" in the 2002 law. "That's the question," said Scott Coffey, Mr. Dolenc's lawyer. "In this context, what is needed to prove 'actual innocence.'" Christopher Connors, Allegheny County first assistant district attorney, seeks clarification, as well, but said that whatever DNA tests might show, they couldn't prove Mr. Dolenc's innocence, actual or otherwise. "The blood evidence at trial stated it could have been the victim, the defendant or someone else's and it was clear to the jury that it was not a conclusive piece of evidence," Mr. Connors said. In fact, prosecutor Riester did lean on the blood evidence in Mr. Dolenc's trial, but it was just one of many questionable elements in the case, according to an investigation by the Post-Gazette and the Innocence Institute of Point Park University. Dear John letter With a simple note that said, "Goodbye John," 25-year-old Patricia Dolenc left the couple's 1 1/2-year-old marriage in 1975 and moved to an apartment on Academy Avenue in Mt. Lebanon. She had complained of verbal and physical abuse. A week later, Mr. Dolenc said, they had agreed to meet in Bridgeville on a Saturday night, but she did not show up. Police later would contend that he abducted and murdered her that night. Three days later, her body was found behind her apartment. Her jeans were removed and folded next to her, their crotch torn out. Her bra and tank top were strung across her right wrist. She wore no shoes and her purse was still in her apartment. A 37-pound blood-stained slab of cement covered her face. A used Band-Aid and splatters of blood covered the ground. Because of the couple's marital problems, police immediately considered Mr. Dolenc a prime suspect, but he offered an alibi. He said he'd been bar hopping in Bridgeville with his uncle that Saturday night. Mr. Dolenc was able to prove that he'd been at some bars, but the police didn't check them all. The prosecution later argued that he would have had time to murder his wife between some of the visits, anyway. While the police would develop other suspects -- including one man who was charged and released in a single day -- the investigation went nowhere for 6 years. They weren't even certain of the day Ms. Dolenc had been killed. Police and prosecutors eventually became convinced that Ms. Dolenc was killed on Saturday, July 5, 1975. But 2 of Mr. Dolenc's relatives later told a private investigator, hired by Mr. Dolenc's attorney, and the Post-Gazette that they saw her two days later in an Oakdale bank. Receipts show that Ms. Dolenc and one of Mr. Dolenc's aunts conducted business in the bank that day. 2 other acquaintances also told the Post-Gazette that they saw Ms. Dolenc on July 7 at a store where she bought two cans of tuna. One of the men who saw her there said he also had beer and pizza with her later that day at a local pub. During the trial, a forensic pathologist testified that Ms. Dolenc probably was dead for less than 72 hours when she was found laying face down on July 8. Her body was still warm and rigor mortis -- which usually disappears within 12 hours of death -- was still present. Not long after Ms. Dolenc's death, a former boyfriend named Ed Zombeck began to hover around the case, telling Mr. Dolenc that he was conducting his own investigation. At the time, Mr. Dolenc did not know that his wife's father had reported Mr. Zombeck to the police for threatening her after she broke off their relationship. Thanks to Mr. Zombeck and Mt. Lebanon police, Mr. Dolenc said he learned about the crime scene and other elements of the murder that police later said only the killer would know. "Ed Zombeck kept turning up during the investigation like a bad penny," one Mt. Lebanon police officer said later. Charges are filed 6 months after the murder, Mt. Lebanon police charged Mr. Zombeck with the crime after a federal drug agent told them that Mr. Zombeck's wife had screamed "tell them you did it" in the background as the agent and Mr. Zombeck were talking on the telephone. The charges were dismissed later that day. Mr. Zombeck denied involvement. He said his wife had mental problems and made the statement during a domestic dispute. Mr. Dolenc went on with his life, building a successful heating and cooling business in the South Hills until murder charges were filed against him in 1981. The case rested on the theory that Mr. Dolenc had killed his wife on that Saturday night, July 5, and then positioned her body behind her new apartment to make it look like a sexual assault. The case was dismissed for insufficient evidence during a coroner's inquest. Eight months later, the charges were re-filed. Mr. Dolenc went on trial for his wife's death six years after it occurred. Trial and error Building a case on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution focused on crime scene evidence like the blood-laden Band-Aid and the 79 splatters of blood that were consistent with the blood type of both Mr. and Ms. Dolenc. There was a partially smoked Kool cigarette, which was not Mr. Dolenc's brand. Saliva taken from it did not match Mr. Dolenc. The prosecutor suggested the blood belonged to Mr. Dolenc, and he paraded a series of witnesses who testified about the couple's marital problems. He pounded away at minor inconsistencies in statements Mr. Dolenc had given police about his movements on the Saturday night when police believed Ms. Dolenc was murdered. While Mr. Dolenc claimed he was with his uncle that night, his uncle testified he had suffered a brain injury since Ms. Dolenc's murder and could not remember dates, times or events. Mr. Dolenc also was challenged on how his sister ended up with a bracelet owned by his dead wife. He and his sister said it was a gift from Ms. Dolenc just before she died. Mr. Dolenc's lawyer did not know at that time about the four people who claim to have seen Ms. Dolenc after she was supposedly killed. But he did get Allegheny County Coroner Joshua Perper to admit on the stand that it was unlikely her body had been in the parking lot for three days because of its state of decomposition. The only hard evidence was the blood, all of which was type A. It could not be determined with forensic testing at that time whether the blood belonged to only one Dolenc or the other, or whether it included drops from someone else. Mr. Dolenc's attorney, Wayne DeLuca, seized on the tenuousness of the evidence in his closing argument to the jury: "Circumstantial evidence. A Band-Aid, cigarette, bracelet. These are classic pieces of physical evidence, circumstantial at best. Take a look at the Band-Aid first. Type A blood. Consistent with Patricia's, consistent with John's, unfortunately, also consistent with 380,000 other people that live in Allegheny County. What does that tell us? Is that good, solid circumstantial evidence?" Along with Mr. Dolenc's history of wife abuse and inconsistent statements, prosecutor Riester focused on the blood in his closing statement: "The blood does match Patty, and it matches the defendant. Now, Mr. DeLuca says, well, I want you to infer it's Patty because she has a Band-Aid. Well, I can stand here and say I want you to infer it's John because he had a cut on his finger," he said. The jury convicted John Dolenc of 1st-degree murder on Sept. 21, 1981, and he was sentenced to life in prison. The DNA fight After a series of failed appeals and civil actions, Mr. Dolenc last year requested a court order to run DNA tests on the blood found at the crime scene. Mr. Coffey, his current lawyer, claimed it is the only significant physical evidence: "If none of the evidence, including the Band-Aid and the cigarette butt, contains petitioner's DNA, then he could not have come in contact with the victim or have been present at the crime scene." Mr. Coffey also pointed out that if a 3rd party's blood were identified, it would strongly suggest Mr. Dolenc's innocence. The Allegheny County District Attorney's Office said the blood probably has degraded and could not be accurately tested after all these years. But the heart of its argument against DNA testing was that excluding Mr. Dolenc from the scene would not prove his innocence. The issue now rests with the state Supreme Court. And Mr. Dolenc remains imprisoned at the State Correctional Institution at Fayette, still maintaining his innocence. In a telephone call last week from Florida, Mr. Dolenc's father, John Dolenc Sr., said his son hopes the DNA matter will catapult all of the issues in the case back into court. "The whole thing is a damn mess," he said. "Like I told my son, if someone reads this transcript, they'd have a real headache, because this case is really screwed up." ** DNA EVIDENCE has freed more than 160 Americans facing death or long prison sentences for crimes committed before DNA testing was available. Yet it remains difficult in Pennsylvania for convicted felons to get the DNA tests they believe would prove their innocence. (source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer Bill Moushey also is director of the Innocence Institute of Point Park University, which examines allegations of wrongful convictions while helping student journalists learn investigative reporting.) GEORGIA: Man receives death penalty for killing mom, daughter 1 of 3 brothers who admitted to the 2001 slaying of a 26-year-old Paulding County woman and her 3-year-old daughter was sentenced to death Monday. Nicholas Cody Tate pleaded guilty to killing Chrissie Williams and her daughter, Katelyn. The 2 were found dead in their Dallas, Ga., home in December 2001. His 2 younger brothers, Dustin and Chad, previously admitted committing the murders and are both serving life sentences in prison. Authorities said after fleeing Georgia, the three traveled to Mississippi where they kidnapped a 23-year-old woman from the gas station where she worked. They forced the woman in her Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed north. Later, the brothers released the woman but kept her car. The Tate brothers abandoned their weapons at a motel in Shawnee, Okla., and drove to El Reno, Okla., which is about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. The three contacted their parents in Dallas, Ga., who called police. County authorities then negotiated their surrender by phone over several hours. (source: Associated Press)
