we re very excited. we re stoked. then comes the judge s order and the cover letter said edward lee elmore may well not be guilty, but that will be for an appellate court to find. judge kinard had left elmore s fate up to other judges to decide. i became literally hysterical, completely sobbing. running, i threw it at john blume. what the hell is the matter with you? john blume had assigned elmore s case to diana as an intern. i was stunned. i had really expected that he would grant relief because they had presented a compelling case of mr. elmore s innocence. diana was discovering that proving mr. elmore s innocence was not enough. to get a new trial, elmore s team would have to prove that elmore s constitutional rights had been violated.
more than 18 years on death row. all rise. judge ernest kinard again presided, the same judge who hat stated that elmore may well not be guilty. lab corps has sent us a report indicating there are hairs from someone other than dorothy edwards and there were no hairs of anyone of african-american descent. he acknowledged the evidence should have been given to the defense but argued only one of the hairs had sufficient dna to read. we do not dispute the materials recovered from the victim s body at the time of the autopsy. one hair, not hairs. one hair. it was merely another hair in the bedroom. of mrs. edwards. this is a completely different case than what the jury heard. in the final analysis, the question really is if not now, when? if this is not enough to grant somebody a new trial, then when is post conviction relief ever appropriate? unexpectedly, rather than adjourn and read the filings
before ruling, the judge issued his decision on the spot. all motions are denied. the judge said, one hair is not enough. i m out of here. in this case, there are a number of things that stink and if you look at it as a whole, it doesn t just stink, it reeks. an execution date was set for elmore. he was placed in a high security lockdown cell while awaiting his date with the electric chair. now a mere three weeks away. i tried my hardest to get him ready for it. and he called me one day and he said, are they going to kill me? i think i told him in the most simple terms i could tell him that they were going to have to take me out first.
went through the testimony and made a key discovery. evidence lists showed elmore s pants had passed through eight different people before the trial. i jumped out of my chair. i start whispering to chris jensen, ask him what this means and who these people are and what that is supposed to represent. one name on the list jumped out at diana. thomas henderson was a state police agent who grew up across the street from dorothy edwards and james holloway and was friendly with both. tom henderson had nothing to do with forensic investigation at all. nothing. he wasn t supposed to be involved in the case anyway because these were people he knew his whole life long. there was really no reason for him to have removed these things from the laboratory. we were arguing that this evidence had in all likelihood been tampered with and quite conceivably that mrs. edwards blood had been put on the garments. it would now be up to the judge to rule whether or not elmore deserved a new trial.
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 all caucasian hair, and they did not belong to mr. elmore. and that should be sufficient to warrant a new trial. we got all excited. asked for the judge to set a hearing. it was december 20th or 21st. we were going to have christmas beyond all christmases. on december 21st, 2000, a new hearing was held. if a new trial were to be granted, elmore could be released on bail and join his family for the holidays after