judge ernest kinard again presided, the same judge who had 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. zelenka 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 that was in the bedroom. 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
threw it at john blume. and he s 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 need to prove that elmore s constitutional rights had been violated. a person can be innocent but as long as they get a fair trial, that s all they re entitled to. well, that begs the question. is it a fair trial if somebody has lied? diana s team immediately appealed the judge s decision to the south carolina supreme court. in the meantime, the state prosecutor, donald zelenka had discovered that diana had a secret that if exposed to destroy her career and damage
we got all excited to ask the judge to set a hearing. it was december 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 more than 18 years on death row. judge ernest kinard presided, the same judge who had stated elmore may well be not 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
were you afraid of dying? not in a way, but like i say, i knew the truth would eventually come out, right. so that s that s kept me going. it kept my faith right, and just taking it one day at a time. that s all you can do, you know, and hope and pray that everything come out all right. mr. elmore had been incarcerated for 11,000 days. the judge told mr. elmore that he had exhausted his sentence and he was free to go. you are free to go, mr. elmore. we could walk him out that door of the courtroom and down those steps as a free man. and that was i m sorry. that was the best moment of my life as an attorney.
he wasn t supposed to be involved in the case any way. 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. the decision would take four months to come down. we presented all this great evidence. 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. the judge had left elmore s fate up to other judges to decide. i became literally became hysterical. completely sobbing, running, i