inmates and sending letters to the presiding judges. she even had one woman s sentence reduced. doing the few things that did that made an impact, i want more of that. i want to do more of that. i want to help people like that. a model prisoner, diana was released in october of 1977 with a full pardon. the whole episode became a distant memory until donald zelenka confronted her 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. but 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, prosecutor willie t. had claimed that negroid hair had been found on the body. but when the defense had
by 1995, diana was ready to present evidence pointing to edward elmore s innocence to a state court in south carolina. the goal was to get a new trial for elmore. diana would be joined by chris jensen for what would be her first hearing as a lawyer. she was very fierce. she had not the slightest doubt about eddie elmore s innocence. 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. but in the small town of greenwood, both elmore and
by 1995, elmore had been on death row for more than 13 years. and he had seen many of his fellow inmates put to death. elmore s survival would now depend on diana getting him a new trial. a process diana would launch only 98 days after passing her bar exam.
dorothy s body was never entered into evidence. as opposed to the hairs on the body, a separate group of 49 pubic hairs said to be found on dorothy s bed also raised diana s doubts. a lot of people saw the 49-some pubic hairs allegedly collected from the victim s bed 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. evidence the bag contained 49 hairs. a number diana found suspiciously close to the number of hairs police pulled from elmore 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
he always said, simply, i didn t do it. in order to solve the mystery of who did murder dorothy edwards, diana began looking for alternate suspects and she found one in the neighbor who discovered the body, james holloway. i read the testimony of james holloway and my head just about spun off my little spindly neck. wow! holloway had spent an unusually long period of time at the crime scene before calling the police. he goes inside dorothy edwards house. he sees that wall of blood for the first time, but he doesn t call police. he decides that he is going to go to the other side neighbor and get her to come in the house with him. so he is at the closet door again and he decides to put gloves on. and then opens the door and lo and behold, there she was. really? he put his gloves on before he went to open the door? diana was also suspicious