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Thread: Listing of US Death Row Inmates That Have Been Resentenced or Released in 2010

  1. #11
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Elmore v. Ozmint

    A federal appeals court in Virginia has tossed out the conviction of a South Carolina man who has spent 29 years in prison, most of it on death row, in the slaying of a 75-year-old widow.

    In a 2-1 ruling Tuesday, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said Edward Lee Elmore's trial lawyers failed to challenge forensic evidence that could have exonerated him. The court said that failure violated Elmore's constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel.

    Elmore was convicted in 1982 of the murder of Dorothy Edwards. She was stabbed 52 times at her Greenwood home.

    Elmore was on death row until last year, when a judge ruled him mentally unfit to be executed and another judge sentenced him to life without parole.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_1...n-1982-murder/
    After spending nearly 3 decades on SC death row for woman’s death, handyman gets bail hearing

    A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina’s death row could soon be leaving prison because of a single strand of hair.

    The hair does not exonerate Edward Lee Elmore, a handyman, in the stabbing death of a widow he worked for, but it has raised enough doubt to win him a new trial — and a bail hearing Friday. The chance to leave prison after three decades comes after numerous appeals and his sentence being overturned three times, including a reduction from death to life in prison.

    In 1982, Elmore was convicted of killing Dorothy Edwards. Her body was found in a closet in her home, stabbed 52 times. She had numerous broken ribs, head wounds and internal injuries.

    At the bond hearing, Elmore faces murder and sexual assault charges.

    Raymond Bonner, a former New York Times reporter, has followed the case for more than a decade and recently wrote a book about it. He said police were anxious to make an arrest to allay a community’s fears that a rapist and murderer was among them, and authorities hastily arrested Elmore. Bonner said prosecutors never established a motive.

    “There aren’t a lot of people on death row who are factually innocent,” Bonner said. “Edward Lee Elmore is factually innocent. He did not commit that crime. ... He was framed.”

    Elmore was convicted in a brief trial in Greenwood, a former textile town of about 23,000 people in the northwest part of the state. As with most death row cases, his appeals made their way through a variety of courts.

    As other death row inmates were exonerated because of new DNA testing technology, Elmore’s attorneys asked a judge in 2000 to overturn his convictions because a blond hair found on Edwards after her death did not match her or Elmore.

    Elmore’s lawyers thought the blond hair may have belonged to Edwards’ next-door neighbor and they asked a judge to exhume the man’s body to test his DNA, but a judge denied the request.

    It wasn’t until 2010 that Elmore began to see his fate turn around. A South Carolina judge ruled he was mentally unfit and could not be executed, per a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

    State prosecutors didn’t oppose a judge’s decision to sentence him to life in prison, and Elmore was, after 28 years, moved from the state’s death row to another maximum-security prison.

    In September 2010, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., heard arguments about the blond hair.

    Elmore’s attorneys said authorities concealed the strand by labeling it as a carpet fiber. Prosecutors argued the strand should be considered along with other evidence, including some four dozen pubic hairs that matched Elmore’s DNA, as well as the defendant’s incriminating statements to a jailhouse informant.

    The judges overturned his conviction in November. After considering the case for more than a year, the court ruled investigators failed to follow standard procedures in collecting hairs from Edwards’ bed, neglecting to take photos, collect bedcovers or sheets for further forensic analysis or package the hairs like other evidence taken from the crime scene.

    Defense attorneys also failed to capitalize on an expert’s finding that Edwards likely died at a time when Elmore could prove he was elsewhere, the court said.

    In January, the U.S. Supreme Court denied South Carolina prosecutors’ request to delay Elmore’s fourth trial. Friday’s bond hearing is among the first steps of that process.

    It’s not clear what will happen at the hearing. Prosecutors could decide not to pursue their case, and Elmore would go free. Or the judge could set bail or decide against it and keep Elmore behind bars until another trial is held.

    Local Solicitor Jerry Peace says Elmore is being brought up on charges of murder and sexual assault, but neither he nor Elmore’s defense attorneys wished to comment before Friday’s hearing. Previously, Elmore’s lawyer has said her client’s five siblings, who have stuck by him ever since his arrest, are ready to welcome him home but noted that her client was nervous about life outside prison, given how much time he’s spent on death row, where inmates are mostly alone.

    “He’s still extremely apprehensive,” Diana Holt said after a judge ruled Elmore would leave death row. “He wants to know when he might be moved so he can brace himself for it.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...amR_story.html

  2. #12
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    Ex-Death Row Inmate in SC Walks out a Free Man

    A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina's death row for the stabbing death was freed from prison Friday under a plea deal.

    A lawyer for Edward Lee Elmore said he maintains his innocence in the death of Dorothy Edwards, a widow he worked for as a handyman, but he pleaded guilty to murder so he could be released from prison. Edwards' body was found in a closet in her home, stabbed 52 times.

    Elmore gave a thumbs up after a hearing and said it "feels great" to be leaving prison.

    About an hour later, Elmore walked out of the Greenwood County courthouse to the cheers of his family. He said his first plans were to head to a buffet or lunch because he was tired of eating prison food.

    "What a great day," he said as we walked to his lawyer's car.

    Elmore 's lawyers have argued for years that a blond hair found on her after her death shows Elmore was not her killer because he has black hair.

    The hair did not exonerate Elmore but raised enough doubt to win him a new trial and a bail hearing that led to the plea deal. The chance to leave prison after three decades comes after numerous appeals and his sentence being overturned three times, including a reduction from death to life in prison.

    "Freedom is justice and that's why he is doing it today," Elmore's attorney, Diana Holt said.

    Just before the hearing, deputies allowed Elmore to see three of his sisters and two of his brothers who were in the courtroom. Many of them were in tears as they quietly spoke. One of them smiled as she turned away as the hearing got ready to begin and said, "Oh, what a long time coming."

    Prosecutor Jerry Peace said one reason he offered the deal was because the victim's sister wanted to end the case. He also said Elmore served 11,000 days behind bars without a single violation.

    "He didn't even cuss a guard. He never did anything," Peace said.

    Peace said he still thinks Elmore is guilty, and cited evidence linking him to the crime. There was a spot of Edwards' blood on Elmore's jeans, Peace said.

    A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina's death row for the stabbing death was freed from prison Friday under a plea deal.

    A lawyer for Edward Lee Elmore said he maintains his innocence in the death of Dorothy Edwards, a widow he worked for as a handyman, but he pleaded guilty to murder so he could be released from prison. Edwards' body was found in a closet in her home, stabbed 52 times.

    Elmore gave a thumbs up after a hearing and said it "feels great" to be leaving prison.

    About an hour later, Elmore walked out of the Greenwood County courthouse to the cheers of his family. He said his first plans were to head to a buffet or lunch because he was tired of eating prison food.

    "What a great day," he said as we walked to his lawyer's car.

    Elmore 's lawyers have argued for years that a blond hair found on her after her death shows Elmore was not her killer because he has black hair.

    The hair did not exonerate Elmore but raised enough doubt to win him a new trial and a bail hearing that led to the plea deal. The chance to leave prison after three decades comes after numerous appeals and his sentence being overturned three times, including a reduction from death to life in prison.

    "Freedom is justice and that's why he is doing it today," Elmore's attorney, Diana Holt said.

    Just before the hearing, deputies allowed Elmore to see three of his sisters and two of his brothers who were in the courtroom. Many of them were in tears as they quietly spoke. One of them smiled as she turned away as the hearing got ready to begin and said, "Oh, what a long time coming."

    Prosecutor Jerry Peace said one reason he offered the deal was because the victim's sister wanted to end the case. He also said Elmore served 11,000 days behind bars without a single violation.

    "He didn't even cuss a guard. He never did anything," Peace said.

    Peace said he still thinks Elmore is guilty, and cited evidence linking him to the crime. There was a spot of Edwards' blood on Elmore's jeans, Peace said.

  3. #13
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    'One spot of Edwards' blood on Elmore's jeans' does not really qualify as evidence unless it can be backed up. And I believe Mr. Elmore is indeed innocent, aside from having a learning disability (We British people consider the term 'mentally retarded' offensive to people with disabilities,just so you know!). Besides, after 30 years,I think Mr. Peace should just now stop mentioning it and move on.

  4. #14
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Don't get your knickers all wet just yet couldheshebeinnocent. He pled guilty and was NOT exonerated!

  5. #15
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    Knickers?! Heidi,I am male, and not a homosexual or feminine one at that either!

  6. #16
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    I lost that bet! :apologetic:

  7. #17
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    Mentally retarded Crafton Heights man won’t face death penalty

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an Allegheny County judge‘s decision to remove a Crafton Heights man from death row because he is mentally retarded.

    A jury in 2002 sentenced Connie Williams, 61, to die by lethal injection after convicting him of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Frances Williams, 53, in August 1999. He stabbed her to death, then cut off her head, hands and feet.

    Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O‘Toole in April 2010 removed Connie Williams from death row after his attorneys argued the sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. Prosecutors appealed.

    Justices on the Supreme Court saw no errors and upheld O‘Toole‘s decision, citing prominent doctors who testified that Williams‘ IQ was between 70 and 75.

    “Connie‘s lack of intellect was evident,” public defender Lisa Middleman, who represented Williams during the penalty phase of his 2002 trial, told the Tribune-Review in 2010.

    Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney‘s office, said no one in his office had yet read the decision and so could not comment.

    Marc Bookman, executive director for the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that helps lawyers whose clients face the death penalty, said the state Supreme Court‘s decision was the right one.

    “The courts have determined intellectually disabled people are less culpable because they may not understand the consequences of their behavior much the same way that juveniles are seen as less culpable,” Bookman said. “We can find them guilty, we can put them in jail for the rest of their lives, but we don‘t kill them.”

    Five doctors testified that Williams had a low IQ and poor mental functioning.

    Dr. Daniel Martell, an assistant clinical psychiatrist in psychiatry and psychobehavioral science, said Williams was able to have a family, care for his children and “engaged in self-direction” when he murdered his wife and tried to hide the evidence, although “all individuals with mental retardation have some relative strengths in functionality — the true diagnosis of mental retardation comes from examining the person‘s weaknesses.”

    Williams, a former sausage maker and disc jockey, claimed his wife left him, but later told detectives he stabbed her in the chest during an argument, then dismembered her in the basement. He led investigators to where he threw the body over a hillside in the North Side, and to the other body parts buried in McKees Rocks.

    Williams was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1974 stabbing death of his girlfriend‘s landlord and was sentenced to seven to 20 years in prison. He was released after serving seven years.

    Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3...#ixzz2IkmQt6bN
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    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #18
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    Man formerly on SC death row suing prosecutors

    A man condemned for decades to South Carolina's death row says prosecutors wrongfully pursued a case against him in a widow's 1982 death.

    Edward Lee Elmore filed a federal lawsuit last month accusing prosecutors of planting evidence that implicated him and conspiring to convict him.

    Elmore was sentenced to death in the slaying of a 75-year-old widow for whom he had done odd jobs.

    That verdict was overturned on appeal three times. Elmore left death row in 2010 when his attorneys argued he was mentally disabled and had a low IQ.

    In 2012, he left prison altogether after entering an Alford plea to murder. Prosecutors agreed his punishment should be the 11,000 days Elmore spent incarcerated.

    Court papers listed no attorneys for the prosecutors and officers named in Elmore's lawsuit.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...rs-4679252.php
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #19
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    Pa. high court to mull ex-death row inmates appeal



    The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal filed on behalf of a former death row inmate who was released but was sent back to prison two years ago on a parole violation.

    Fifty-six-year-old Ernest Simmons won a new trial in the 1992 slaying of Anna Knaze but pleaded no contest to third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in that case and two 1984 assaults and was paroled but was reincarcerated after allegations of threats at a Clearfield County hospital.

    The Supreme Court said the threats weren't relayed and no action was taken to implement them.

    Defense attorney Thomas Dickey told The (Johnstown) Tribune-Democrat ( http://bit.ly/181T20Z) that his client was just blowing off steam and the high court's decision is a "major step."

    http://www.timesonline.com/news/stat...4013d9830.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #20
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    Ex-death row inmate shares son's story of forgiveness

    It's the "normal" things that matter so much to Gaile Owens these days.

    Things like walking in the park with her grandchildren, holding two steady jobs, even mundane errands around a city that is still a little foreign to her.

    "You hear people say, 'I have to do a lot of things'," Owens, 61, said Wednesday. "My favorite thing to say is, 'I GET to do these things.'"

    That wasn't the case for most of her life. Three years ago, Owens was preparing to be executed by lethal injection for paying a hit man to kill her husband in late 1984 after what she described as a life of humiliation and physical and sexual abuse at his hands. But with the help of her son, Stephen, and numerous advocates in the community, she was able to secure a commutation of her death sentence from then-Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2010 and her freedom from the state parole board a year later.

    She has remained largely silent about the past 29 years, but that has changed with the publishing of her son's book, "Set Free," which documents his struggle to find meaning and forgiveness in the murder of his father and the condemning of his mother to death. Gaile and Stephen Owens will speak Thursday at a forum hosted by John Seigenthaler, former Tennessean publisher and editor and one of the Owens' key allies in the fight to free her.

    Gaile Owens spoke for the first time with The Tennessean in a phone interview Wednesday, joined by her son so they could talk about his new book. She's still not ready to talk about the murder or the abuse she says she endured from her husband. But she wants people to know about her family's journey of faith, forgiveness and hope.

    "I think his journey is important. I think it speaks of hope for other people," she said of her son's book. "No one will have walked the same journey we have, but everybody has a story and everybody has got places in their life where they needed forgiveness."

    Forgiveness found

    Stephen Owens said the past 30 years have been fraught with anger and confusion. He was with his mother one day in 1984 when they found his father beaten to death with a tire iron in their Shelby County home. Gaile Owens and the man she hired, Sidney Porterfield, were both convicted and sentenced to die. Porterfield remains on death row today.

    Forgiveness didn't come easy.

    Stephen Owens had no contact with his mother from the time he testified against her at trial in 1986 until Aug. 23, 2009, when he finally decided to visit her in prison. In "Set Free," he describes an overwhelmingly emotional, three-hour meeting, ending with a tearful hug. It was then that he heard words he had waited nearly 30 years to hear.

    "I'm sorry, Stephen," Gaile Owens told her son in a conversation he describes in "Set Free." "I know I can't change anything now, but I just need to ask for your forgiveness."

    That gave him a chance to say the words he felt God had wanted him to say for so long.

    "I forgive you, mom," he responded.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...eness/2914033/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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