that i did my job. the state was represented by donald zelenka who reportedly once argued that women who had abortions in the third trimester could be executed for murder. and elmore s fate would be decided by judge ernest kinard. one of the first witnesses called was james gilliam, the inmate who said elmore confessed to him in jail. in the small town of greenwood, both elmore and gilliam knew bishop spearman. and before the hearing, gilliam told spearman the truth. james gilliam and i go back i guess all our life. one night he called me and he told me, i lied and my conscience is bothering me. gilliam said he made a deal with the prosecutor to testify against elmore in exchange for release from prison. with elmore facing the electric chair, he felt bad about what he had done. i said, james, make it right. i got excited.
prosecutor, donald zelenka, had discovered that diana had a secret that if exposed to destroy her career and damage elmore s case. he would soon call her to a deposition. he asked, have you ever done anything in the course of your life that would reflect poorly on the legal profession? and i said, yes. and help on experian.com. so how are we going to sweeten this deal? floor mats. clear coats. you re getting warmer. leather seats. and this. my wife bought me that. get your credit swagger on. become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions.
prevailing were very slight. in yet another face-off with donald zelenka, the fourth circuit s three-judge panel heard oral arguments in september of 2010, and remarkably, they came down hard on zelenka. the time of death, we were locking it down because the defendant was saying at 9:30. headed toward that direction locking down the time of death based on his alibi. i thought you locked down time of death by science. the judge have moral righteous indignation in their voices and what they re saying. you put in evidence there was hairs found on the bed there was a big part of the conviction? yes, it was. not one photograph was taken of the bed where these hairs were supposed to be. does that make sense? well, i don t know. do you think that makes a difference now that we know he is mentally retarded? no, not at all. in this case, this is just a constellation of problems. even though the judges seem to be raising some serious questions, i came out of the argumen
a full pardon. the whole episode became a distant memory until donald zelenka confronted her with it nearly 25 years later. i was like, you know what? you opened the door. i m walking through it. let s do this. i m going to tell it all. not just the part you want to hear. the judge in the case visibly disgusted by zelenka s tactic disallowed the deposition. diana could continue her fight for elmore s life. at elmore s trial, the prosecutor had claimed that negroid hair had been found on the victim s body. when the defense had petition when the defense had petition to see the hair it had gone missing. now 16 years later, the hair suddenly turned up. the prosecution has an
don zelenka asked, have you ever done anything in the course of your life that would reflect poorly on the legal profession? and i said, yes. diana feared if her story became public it would ruin her reputation and destroy elmore s chances for a new trial. in 1975 at the age of 17, diana ran away to new orleans with a few friends. it was a horrible time. my sister had been taken away by the state of texas. it had to do with sexual abuse that i suffered. i was 17. i didn t know how to deal with stuff like that. so i left. i met these three people. went to new orleans with them and after a little bit, i wanted to go home. i didn t have any money and there was a plan.