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 comes to the justice system. here in greenwood, there are those that still have their agenda, but it s a hidden agenda. i m positive that race played a factor in edward lee elmore s trials. make no mistake about it, i think that s 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 defender geddes anderson who seemed utterly unprepared to take on the case. i asked him, when did you start working on his case? eight days before the trail began. that s zero time.
diana s team immediately appealed judge kinard s decision to the south carolina supreme court. but 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. 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.
moments in my career of not reacting. holy he also told me that law enforcement suspected him because all of the neighbors had told law enforcement that he and dorothy had been having an affair for the last 30 years. he told me that dorothy was supposed to go out of town that weekend because she claimed that this guy in tryon, north carolina was going to propose to her that weekend. but somehow she did not get to go on that trip to tryon, north carolina, that weekend. diana realized if holloway was having an affair with dorothy, the motive could be jealousy. and holloway s detailed description of what might have happened also raised a red flag for diana. he then starts telling me the story of what happened in her house, as though he were an eyewitness.
as the most damaging evidence against mr. elmore. but this item of evidence was a plain baggy like put your kids sandwiches in when you re packing their school lunch. not sealed with red evidence tape that says evidence, do not tamper. this did not have that on there. the evidence bag contained 49 harris, a number diana found suspiciously close to the number of harris police pulled from el mar after his arrest. there was from what i understand about, 50 to 60 hairs that were collected, either being combed or pulled. but if elmore s hair had been found at the crime scene of the nearly 100 crime scene photographs, not a single photo showed hairs on the bed. any kind of evidence you collect at a crime scene, the first thing you do is photograph it. there was no pictures of the hair on the bed. there was pictures of everything except the most crucial evidence in the case.
done anything in the course of your life that would reflect poorly on the legal profession? and i said yes. diana feared that 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. so i went to the french quarter, started talking to this guy.