court. in the meantime, the state prosecutor, donald zelenka had discovered that diana had a secret that if exposed, could 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. we re the most connected, but i think this solo date will seal the deal. sure! i offer multi-car, safe driver, and so many other discounts that people think i m a big deal. and boy, are they right. ladies, i can share hundreds in savings with all of you! just visit progressive.com today. but right now, it s choosing time. ooh! we have a winner. all: what? [chuckles] he s supposed to pick one of us. this is a joke, right? that was the whole point of us being here.
distant memory until she was confronted 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 petition had asked to see the hair it had gone missing. now 16 years later, the hair suddenly turned up. the prosecution has an obligation to turn over to the defense anything which is favorable. in this case, they didn t do it at the time of trial. as it turns out, none of the hairs were negroid at all. they were caucasian and they did not belong to mr. elmore. that should be sufficient to warrant a new trial.
she was determined to make sure 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 will 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.
court in the country. so we felt our chances of 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. 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 o
while edward lee elmore sat on death row waiting for his appeal to move forward, diana holt took on other death penalty cases. in one she was able to get a last-minute stay of execution over the objections of the assistant attorney general. he was determined to discredit diana. he dug through her past looking for anything to get her off the case. in april 2000, he called her to a deposition. it was at the attorney general s office. there were six attorneys across the table from me and all of them lined up like this. looking. don zelenka asked, have you ever done anything in the course of your life that would reflect