Post by pumpkinpie on Feb 15, 2010 10:54:44 GMT -5
Life sentence for man on SC death row the longest
By MEG KINNARD - Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The inmate who has been on South Carolina's death row longer than any of its other current inhabitants cannot be executed for raping and killing a 75-year-old widow because he is mentally retarded, a state judge has ruled.
Edward Lee Elmore, 51, has been on death row since 1982, the year he was sentenced to death for the murder of Dorothy Edwards. The widow had been stabbed 52 times when she was found inside her Greenwood home.
In a 22-page order filed Thursday in Greenwood County Circuit Court, Judge J. Mark Hayes II ordered that Elmore cannot be executed because he is mentally retarded. During a two-day hearing at the state's main prison in Columbia in May, doctors testified that Elmore was within the mental retardation range on all of the four IQ tests he has taken.
Death sentence revoked for inmateThe inmate who has been on South Carolina's death row longer than any of its other current inhabitants cannot be executed for raping and killing a 75-year-old widow because he is mentally retarded, a state judge has ruled.
In a 22-page order filed Thursday in Greenwood County Circuit Court, Judge J. Mark Hayes II ordered that Elmore cannot be executed because he is mentally retarded. During a two-day hearing at the state's main prison in Columbia in May, doctors testified that Elmore was within the mental retardation range on all of the four IQ tests he has taken.
"The record is replete with evidence that applicant suffered significant subaverage intellectual functioning and deficits in adaptive skill functioning commencing at a very early age and that persisted throughout the developmental period and to this day," Hayes wrote.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders in 2002.
Corrections Department officials said Friday they had not yet received the order and did not know when Elmore would be moved from death row at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.
Elmore's attorneys have been fighting his sentence for nearly three decades. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside Elmore's death sentence, asking South Carolina's highest court to restudy his case. Two later, trials also resulted in his conviction and death sentence.
In 2000, after at least nine former death row inmates were exonerated because of new DNA testing technology, Elmore's attorneys tried again, asking a judge to overturn his murder and sexual assault convictions. His lawyers argued that a blond hair found on Edwards' body did not match the DNA of Elmore or the victim and should be enough to overturn his conviction.
But a circuit judge ruled that the single hair wasn't enough for a new trial, sending him back to death row yet again.
A year later, Elmore's lawyers asked to exhume the body of another man they said could have killed Edwards, saying they needed DNA from James M. Holloway Sr.'s body to test against the blond hair. That request was also denied.
Hayes' order doesn't exonerate Elmore, but it may give him a shot at life outside of prison. South Carolina did not adopt the sentencing option of life without parole until 1995, more than a decade after Elmore was sentenced.
Had he received a life sentence at the time of his conviction, Elmore could have become eligible for parole after serving 20 years, or in 2002. In 1986, the state upped the eligibility threshold to 30 years.
Elmore's attorneys and state prosecutors did not immediately respond to message seeking comment.
Elsewhere in the U.S., at least one other inmate has been on death row nearly a decade longer than Elmore. In Florida, 63-year-old Gary Alvord has been on that state's death row since April 1974 after being condemned for killing three women in Hillsborough County the year before.
www.thesunnews.com/575/story/1299670.html
By MEG KINNARD - Associated Press Writer COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The inmate who has been on South Carolina's death row longer than any of its other current inhabitants cannot be executed for raping and killing a 75-year-old widow because he is mentally retarded, a state judge has ruled.
Edward Lee Elmore, 51, has been on death row since 1982, the year he was sentenced to death for the murder of Dorothy Edwards. The widow had been stabbed 52 times when she was found inside her Greenwood home.
In a 22-page order filed Thursday in Greenwood County Circuit Court, Judge J. Mark Hayes II ordered that Elmore cannot be executed because he is mentally retarded. During a two-day hearing at the state's main prison in Columbia in May, doctors testified that Elmore was within the mental retardation range on all of the four IQ tests he has taken.
Death sentence revoked for inmateThe inmate who has been on South Carolina's death row longer than any of its other current inhabitants cannot be executed for raping and killing a 75-year-old widow because he is mentally retarded, a state judge has ruled.
In a 22-page order filed Thursday in Greenwood County Circuit Court, Judge J. Mark Hayes II ordered that Elmore cannot be executed because he is mentally retarded. During a two-day hearing at the state's main prison in Columbia in May, doctors testified that Elmore was within the mental retardation range on all of the four IQ tests he has taken.
"The record is replete with evidence that applicant suffered significant subaverage intellectual functioning and deficits in adaptive skill functioning commencing at a very early age and that persisted throughout the developmental period and to this day," Hayes wrote.
The U.S. Supreme Court banned the death penalty for mentally retarded offenders in 2002.
Corrections Department officials said Friday they had not yet received the order and did not know when Elmore would be moved from death row at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.
Elmore's attorneys have been fighting his sentence for nearly three decades. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside Elmore's death sentence, asking South Carolina's highest court to restudy his case. Two later, trials also resulted in his conviction and death sentence.
In 2000, after at least nine former death row inmates were exonerated because of new DNA testing technology, Elmore's attorneys tried again, asking a judge to overturn his murder and sexual assault convictions. His lawyers argued that a blond hair found on Edwards' body did not match the DNA of Elmore or the victim and should be enough to overturn his conviction.
But a circuit judge ruled that the single hair wasn't enough for a new trial, sending him back to death row yet again.
A year later, Elmore's lawyers asked to exhume the body of another man they said could have killed Edwards, saying they needed DNA from James M. Holloway Sr.'s body to test against the blond hair. That request was also denied.
Hayes' order doesn't exonerate Elmore, but it may give him a shot at life outside of prison. South Carolina did not adopt the sentencing option of life without parole until 1995, more than a decade after Elmore was sentenced.
Had he received a life sentence at the time of his conviction, Elmore could have become eligible for parole after serving 20 years, or in 2002. In 1986, the state upped the eligibility threshold to 30 years.
Elmore's attorneys and state prosecutors did not immediately respond to message seeking comment.
Elsewhere in the U.S., at least one other inmate has been on death row nearly a decade longer than Elmore. In Florida, 63-year-old Gary Alvord has been on that state's death row since April 1974 after being condemned for killing three women in Hillsborough County the year before.
www.thesunnews.com/575/story/1299670.html
