Transcripts for CNN Death Row Stories 20150228 05:22:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
living room floor, shattered. a pair of bloody ice tongs. dorothy edwards was found dead in her closet. the brutality of the crime scene, the blood, the way the body was, the stab wounds post mortem was just totally unbelievable. dorothy s body had 52 wounds, 11 broken ribs and abrasions on her vagina. the state forensic tape gathered what evidence was inside the home. hair samples were found on the bed. blood at various places. outside there were some fingerprints. in a crime scene wiped clean of fingerprints, police believe the killer made a mistake. a thumbprint found on the backdoor. dorothy s neighbor james holloway told police that edward lee elmore, a 23-year-old handyman worked for dorothy from time to time. although he had never been convicted of a felony, police
back positive that it was the victim s blood. prosecutors also told the jury that dozens of elmore s pubic hairs were found on dorothy s bed. and finally, prosecutors presented james gilliam. a prison inmate who claimed to have heard elmore confess to the crime while in jail. that came out of nowhere. that just rocked me. mr. elmore told gilliam that i went down there to rob the lady and she started screaming and i killed her. that was the lynchpin. the jury took less than five hours to reach a verdict. elmore was convicted and sentenced to death. but the conviction was overturned on appeal. there was one juror who was reluctant to impose the death penalty. the trial judge went into the jury room and put pressure on the holdout juror to impose the death sentence. a new trial was ordered.
samples and placed them in the county jail house. even elmore s public defender had doubts about his innocence. many people will proclaim constantly their innocence and i cannot remember mr. elmore vociferously proclaiming his innocence and i got the feeling that there might be something for him to hide. elmore s case came to trial only 82 days after his arrest. prosecutors say dorothy had been killed saturday night when elmore was alone and had no alibi. you want to find out whether or not mr. elmore had any alibis. we found none. mr. elmore was not very cooperative. he wouldn t hardly talk to me. police found small spots of blood matching dorothy s blood type on elmore s pants and shoes. back in the 80s, dna analysis had not been developed. when dna was available it came
and when i went to greenwood jail and i spoke with him, he really didn t know why he was there. that bothered me. a hard worker, elmore got by on odd jobs like cleaning gutters and washing windows, including for dorothy edwards. when dorothy was murdered, age old fears and recrimination surfaced in the community. i know race plays a role when it come to the justice system. in greenwood, there are those that still have their agenda, but it is a hidden agenda. i m positive that race played a factor in edward lee elmore s trials. make no mistake, i think that was because he was the black guy that they say killed an older white woman. searching through elmore s original trial, diana found potential grounds for appeal. her first target was public