Death Row Stories (2014–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Innocence and the Intern - full transcript
On this episode of Death Row Stories,
a white woman is brutally murdered...
- Blood spatter on the walls. The brutality
of the crime scene - was just unbelievable.
...and a black man is arrested.
- His fingerprint was found. There were
a number of - hairs on the victim's bed.
But after a death sentence,
a law intern has her doubts...
There was something wrong. I started seeing
what the lies were.
...and the case begins to unravel.
There are those that
have their hidden agenda.
Is it a fair trial if someone has lied?
Corruption is a theme of the day almost.
There was no way I was
going to let this case go.
There was a body on the water.
He was butchered and murdered.
Many people proclaim their innocence.
In this case, there are a number
of things that stink.
This man is remorseless.
He needs to pay for it with his life.
The electric chair
flashed in front of my eyes.
Get a conviction at all costs.
Let the truth fall where it may.
Good evening and welcome to Carolina.
Tonight we're coming to you
from the city of Greenwood,
a diverse city and one
that has the distinction
of having the widest
main street in the world.
Greenwood is a very small community.
- Everybody seems to know everybody.
We're related - to everybody here.
It is very tight-knit.
So when the news came out
about this horrendous murder,
it was devastating.
On a cold Monday morning in 1982,
the bruised and beaten body
of 75-year-old Dorothy
Edwards was discovered
in this upscale home.
Dorothy Edwards, she was just
a loved woman in the community.
And she had been horribly killed.
Dorothy was known as a graceful
and charming woman
with a beautiful singing voice
and a wonderful sense of humor.
The next-door neighbor, Mr. Holloway,
had noticed a couple of
newspapers had piled up
and he went over to check on her.
On January 19th, 1982, inside the home,
Holloway told police he found
signs of struggle everywhere.
A heavy glass ashtray
shattered on the living room floor.
A pair of bloody ice tongs.
Dorothy Edwards was
found dead in her closet.
The brutality of the crime scene,
the blood,
the way the body was,
and the stab wounds,
postmortem, it was just...
totally unbelievable.
Dorothy's body had 52 wounds,
11 broken ribs and abrasions on her vagina.
- And the state forensic team gathered
what evidence - was inside the home.
Hair samples, they say,
were found on the bed,
blood in various places,
outside there were some fingerprints.
In a crime scene wiped
clean of finger prints,
police believe the killer made a mistake.
A thumb print found on the back door.
Dorothy's neighbor,
James Holloway, told police
that Edward Lee Elmore,
a 23-year-old handyman, worked for Dorothy
from time to time.
Although Elmore had never
been convicted of a felony,
police matched his fingerprints
from other misdemeanor arrests
and issued a warrant to bring him in,
accusing him of murder and rape,
among lesser charges.
Greenwood Police went
looking for Elmore 36 hours after
Dorothy's body was found.
I was working second shift
with the detective division
and the call came in
saying that the suspect was
in ex-girlfriend, Mary's apartment.
I went up and knocked on the door.
The encounter was not what Detective
Vanlerberghe expected.
I told him that we had
a warrant for his arrest.
And I told him it was for murder.
His demeanor at that time
was so nonchalant, just...
"Oh, okay,"
which is totally out of context for anybody
I've ever dealt with before
in a situation like that.
No outburst or violent behavior. Just...
like, "Oh, well".
Police took hair and
blood samples and placed
him in the county jail house.
Even Elmore's public defender had doubts
about his innocence.
Many people will proclaim
constantly their innocence
and I cannot remember
Mr. Elmore vociferously
proclaiming his innocence
and I got the feeling that
there might be something
for him to hide.
Elmore's case came to trial
only 82 days after his arrest.
Prosecutors said Dorothy had
been killed on Saturday night
when Elmore was alone and had no alibi.
You want to find out
whether or not Mr. Elmore
had any alibis.
And, uh, we found none. And Mr. Elmore,
he was not very cooperative.
He wouldn't hardly talk to me.
Police found small spots of blood
matching Dorothy's blood type
on Elmore's pants and shoes.
Back in the '80s, DNA analysis
had not been developed.
When DNA was available
it came back positive
that it was the victim's blood.
Prosecutors also told the jury that
dozens of Elmore's pubic hairs
were found on Dorothy's bed.
And finally,
prosecutors presented James Gilliam,
a prison inmate who claimed
to have heard Elmore confess
to the crime while in jail.
That came out of nowhere.
And that just rocked me.
Mr. Elmore told Gilliam that, "I went down
and robbed the lady.
And she started
screaming. And I killed her."
That was the linchpin.
The jury took less than five hours
to reach a verdict.
Elmore was convicted
and sentenced to death.
But the conviction was
overturned on appeal.
There was one juror who was reluctant
to impose the death penalty.
And the trial judge went into
the jury room and put pressure
on the holdout juror
to impose the death sentence.
A new trial was ordered. Same prosecutor,
same defense attorneys, same outcome.
A third trial was held to
reconsider the sentence
and again, the decision was unanimous.
Thirty six jurors had
determined that Edward Elmore
should be put to death.
Eleven years later,
a 34-year-old law student
named Diana Holt
came to the South Carolina
Death Penalty Resource Center
as a summer intern.
One of her first assignments
was reviewing Elmore's case.
The first time I saw the name,
Edward Lee Elmore, I was
reading through the transcript.
Diana started having suspicions that
Elmore's trials weren't fair.
She was troubled that
Elmore's defense attorney
didn't call any expert witnesses
and rarely challenged any
of the prosecution's evidence.
Diana knew that an incompetent defense
was grounds for an appeal.
I felt like there was something wrong.
I needed to meet Eddie and uh,
give him an eyeball
up and down, size him up.
And who she met wasn't what she expected.
Meeting him, it is just this biggest,
sweetest smile,
and he is so docile and gentle
and quiet and happy.
Happy. How is he on death row and happy?
It just didn't make any sense.
There was no way I was going
to let Elmore's case go.
- You trust God
no matter how bad it looks,
it's not bad as it seems.
But our God is still in control.
Bishop Emanuel Spearman
was pastor to Edward Lee Elmore,
the man accused of
murdering Dorothy Edwards.
I had come to know Edward in the late '70s.
I pastored his home church.
And his mother and I was best of friends.
And they didn't have a whole lot.
One of 11 siblings,
Elmore's father was killed
by a hit-and-run driver
when Elmore was two.
He grew up in dire poverty.
He had kind of a low IQ. I
was a special ed teacher,
so I knew that he was slow.
And when I went to Greenwood jail
and I had spoke with him,
he really didn't know why he was there.
And, and that bothered me.
A hard worker, Elmore got by on odd jobs
like cleaning gutters
and washing windows,
including for Dorothy Edwards.
But 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 is a hidden agenda.
I'm positive that race played a factor
in Edward Lee Elmore's trials.
And make no mistake about it
but I think most of that 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 ask him, "When did you start
working on his case?"
Eight days before the trail began.
That's zero time. You can't even read
all of the evidence
and assess it and crunch it.
In retrospect perhaps I should have asked
for more time.
I never have proclaimed to be,
you know, the best lawyer that
ever graced the courtroom.
Overworked and underpaid,
Mr. Anderson also had
a reputation as a drinker.
That's fair. That's a fair accusation.
I have had certain...
I guess you could say, problems, with it,
but I can say this categorically
that I was totally
clear-headed and not drinking
during those trials.
Every one of them.
But on the other hand, you know,
I go out occasionally. And uh,
I'm not as bad as I used to be, but...
In contrast,
Prosecutor William T. Jones III
known as Willie T., was considered
a master of the courtroom.
Willie T.'s track record spoke for itself.
He lost very few. He was very dramatic.
I've seen that man
cry in front of the jury.
Mr. Jones in the courtroom
probably could outperform
Sir Lawrence Olivier.
Let's put it that way.
He could overpower you,
over control you, and...
he was not beyond saying
things that he couldn't prove
if they weren't challenged.
Early in the first trial,
Anderson challenged Jones by objecting
that a single thumb print was not enough
to arrest Elmore.
In order to obtain an arrest warrant,
the police presented an
upside down thumb print
on the back outside door frame.
Well, that's exactly consistent with,
you know,
cleaning the windows. Cleaning the door.
That is not probable cause
in anywhere else in America
that I'm aware of.
But Willie T. said, "Oh, well, I'm glad
you all brought that up.
The forensic pathologist let us know
that she had located Negroid pubic hairs
on the victim's uh, chest and abdomen.
The defense shut their mouths and sat down.
If Elmore's hair had in fact been found
on the body,
this was a new and explosive claim.
A claim that went unchallenged
by Geddes Anderson.
Did you ask to see that evidence?
You'd have to look
at the transcript to see.
I don't know whether I did or not.
According to the transcript you didn't.
Why would you not have
asked to see that evidence?
It seems like a pretty important evidence.
- Well, I don't know how to answer
that. I guess - you'll just have to
Take some non-answer to that question.
Mysteriously, the pubic hair Willie T. said
was found on 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 thought
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 you 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 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 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're going to do is
- you photograph it.
There was no pictures
of the hair on the bed.
There was pictures of everything
except for the most
crucial evidence in the case.
So it became obvious to me
something wasn't quite right.
The only photo of the bed shows it covered
with police camera equipment,
contaminating any evidence.
The question became, "Where did the hairs
in the baggy come from?"
- There was no question. They
pulled those hairs - from his body.
- And they pulled a lot of them. And I
don't think - they were ever on the bed.
I believe it was planted.
Diana was starting to see a pattern.
There was all this ineffective
assistance of counsel.
There was no basis for probable cause
to arrest Mr. Elmore anyway,
and there was no list
of Negroid pubic hairs
in the original police inventory.
There was no item like that.
As Diana dug deeper into the case,
a new suspect began to emerge.
She thought the next-door neighbor
who discovered Dorothy's body
had acted suspiciously.
Really? He put his gloves on before he went
to open the door?
That grabbed me right away.
In order to get a new trial
for Edward Lee Elmore,
Diana needed to find grounds to appeal.
When she finally read what Elmore said
in the original trial,
she felt more determined
than ever to fight back.
I started reading Eddie's
testimony and it got me. Yeah.
And the more it went along,
the more it got me.
I remember when he was cross-examined
because for a long time,
Edward didn't say anything or testify.
And he just sat there as if,
"Why am I here?
Why am I going through this?"
- You want this court to believe
you're always - this quiet, don't you?
Well, sir,
you asked me something. I answered.
You want them to always believe
you're real quiet and polite
- No, sir.
Edward didn't understand
what he was talking about.
He didn't understand how to defend himself
or what to say.
Why did you hit her with this ashtray?
- I didn't hit her with it.
- Why did you stick her - with this knife?
- I didn't stick her with no knife, sir.
- Tell us how it felt
- when she reached down and jerked
these pubic hairs - out of that area.
- Sir, she didn't
jerk them off me.
- 'Cause I wasn't there.
- She tried to get up - off the bed.
- And get out of there.
- I wasn't there, sir.
- You caught her, started pounding her
- with your fist.
No, sir.
- No, sir.
- No, sir. I wasn't there.
That's all I have to ask you.
In his closing argument
to the jury,
Willie T. portrayed
Elmore as a sadistic killer
who tortured his victim
before beating her to death.
But Diana thought that
the depiction of Elmore
was highly prejudicial
and the evidence riddled with holes.
She also thought Elmore had done well
under the circumstances.
Even under withering cross-examination
by brilliant Willie T.,
Mr. Elmore said what he's always said.
Very 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 of my little spindly neck.
I was like, "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 the police.
He decides that he's going to go to
the other side neighbor
and get her to come in the house with him.
So he's at the closet
door again and he decides
to put gloves on.
And then he opens the door,
and lo and behold,
there she was.
Really
Diana was also suspicious that Holloway
immediately told police
who the perpetrator could be.
He told law enforcement, you know,
"There was a boy here
a couple of weeks back
who washed her windows.
And if you get me her checkbook,
I can get his name for you."
And that was Edward Lee Elmore. That boy.
Even more surprising was that the police
allowed Holloway,
a possible suspect,
to clean the crime scene
the day after Dorothy's body was found.
Law enforcement turned the crime scene over
to Jimmy Holloway to clean up.
He could do whatever he wanted in there.
There was no law enforcement presence
watching what happened.
There was no preservation
of the crime scene.
Diana needed answers
so she drove 90 miles to Greenwood,
South Carolina,
and showed up unannounced
at James Holloway's
front door.
Mrs. Holloway answered the
door. She led me into the den
and he was sitting on
his big overstuffed recliner.
So I introduced myself
and he proceeded to tell me,
well, you know, really,
"The only one who could kill her
and get away with it was me,
the way she trusted me."
That was one of the
toughest moments in my career
of not reacting, "Holy..."
He also told me that law
enforcement suspected him
because all the neighbors
had told law enforcement that,
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 this weekend. And...
But somehow she didn't
get to go on that trip to Tryon,
North Carolina, that weekend.
Diana realized that 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.
"She was just sitting there on her settee,
watching TV.
He just came in and he started on her.
It took her a good 20 minutes to die."
He just went on. And you didn't...
There wasn't any nudging or prompting.
He was relishing talking
about all of the things.
It was a,
a gully washer of dumbfoundedness that day.
Diana's suspicions about James Holloway
were never pursued.
He passed away in 1994.
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.
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 Zolenka
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 Earnest 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 Gilliam
knew Bishop Spearman.
- And before the hearing,
Gilliam told Spearman - the truth.
James Gilliam and I go
back I guess all our life.
One night he called me and he told me,
"I lied and my conscience is bothering me."
Gilliam said he made a deal
with the prosecutor
to testify against Elmore
in exchange for release
from prison.
But with Elmore facing
the electric chair he felt bad
about what he had done.
I said, "James,
make it right." And I got excited because
I felt like, well...
once this comes out that Ed would be free.
Gilliam said,
- "The testimony that I gave
in these prior trials - was false."
That he made up this story
to try to get better treatment for himself
on his criminal sentence.
Gilliam would go on to
state that the only thing
Elmore had ever said
was that he didn't kill Dorothy Edwards.
But Diana's team also
felt they needed to refute
Dorothy Edwards' time of death
which the medical examiner
had placed on Saturday night
during the only hours Elmore had no alibi.
Diana hired forensic expert,
Jonathan Arden.
- In my opinion the victim died in
the early afternoon - on Sunday.
That time frame makes
sense with the rigor mortis,
the lack of decomposition
but when the state's
medical examiner was asked,
"Why did you recommend
that the time of death
be 65 hours prior to the time of discovery
given all the evidence of the rigor mortis,
the lack of decomposition?"
- she said under oath, "Because that's what
- they told me.
The police told me that's
when they thought it happened."
But even with all the evidence
in Elmore's favor,
Diana and Jensen knew the biggest hurdle
would be explaining the blood
on Elmore's pants to the court.
The blood that was supposedly
found on the pants and shoes
matched the blood type of Mrs. Edwards.
And this was a very
difficult testimony to rebut.
As Jensen cross-examined the state's
blood expert,
Diana went through the
files on the defense table
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. And 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 lifelong.
- 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 Judge Kinard 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."
Judge Kinard had left Elmore's fate
up to other judges to decide.
I became... Literally, became hysterical.
Completely sobbing, running,
I threw it at John Blume.
And he... "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 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
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."
While Edward Lee Elmore
sat on death row
waiting for his appeal to move forward,
Diana Holt took on
other death penalty cases.
In one she was able to get a
last-minute stay of execution
over the objections of
Assistant Attorney General,
Donald Zelenka.
Zelenka was determined to discredit Diana.
Zelenka dug through Diana's past,
looking for anything
to get her off the case.
In April, 2000,
he called her to a deposition.
It was at the attorney general's office.
There were six attorneys
across the table from me
and all of them lined up like this.
Looking.
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."
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.
And the ruse was that I would,
um, exchange sex for money.
We left Bourbon Street together,
got in his car
and one of the two guys came in.
He got on the passenger side.
I was scrunched in the middle.
Diana's friend pulled a gun
and demanded money.
The driver gave them $60.
They jumped out of the car
and ran.
Made it about three blocks.
Pulled over by the New
Orleans Police Department,
up against the wall. The
victim was a US Marshal.
So it's like Dumb and Dumber a little bit.
You know,
what do you expect from an airhead 17
I pled guilty to armed robbery
and, um... off I went to
the Louisiana Correctional
Institute for Women.
One day, the prosecutor in
my case came to the prison
to visit and he said,
"I just want you to know
that you don't have to
be what you did that day,
and you can make it,
and you can be somebody."
And I... I'm still...
Why wouldn't every
prosecutor want to do that?
Diana began studying
in the prison's law library,
- researching cases of fellow inmates and
sending letters - to the presiding judges.
She even had one woman's sentence reduced.
Doing the few things that
I did that made an impact,
it was like, "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 Dorothy Edwards' body.
- But when the defense had petitioned
to see the hair - it had gone missing.
Now, 16 years later,
the hair suddenly turned up.
The prosecution has an obligation
to turn over to the defense
anything which is favorable.
And 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 and asked for the judge
to set a hearing.
It was December 20th or 21st.
- We were going to have, you know,
a 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.
All rise!
Judge Ernest Kinard again presided,
the same judge who had stated
Elmore may well be not guilty.
Lab corps has entered a report
indicating there are
hairs there from someone
other than Dorothy Edwards
and there were no hairs from anyone
of African-American descent.
Zelenka acknowledged
- that the evidence should've been given
- to the defense
But argued that only one of the hairs
found on Dorothy's body
had sufficient DNA to read.
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
Unexpectedly, rather than adjourn
and read the filings before ruling,
Judge Kinard 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.
After 22 years on death row,
Edward Elmore was in lockdown,
a special holding cell for
inmates awaiting execution.
With only 23 days to go, Diana filed
a last-minute appeal
and got a stay of execution.
But this was only a temporary solution.
If Elmore was to survive, they would need
a new strategy.
The Supreme Court issues a landmark
death penalty decision.
And a Supreme Court decision from 2002
gave them an opportunity.
In a stunning reversal, of course, the US
Supreme Court today ruled
executing mentally disabled
criminals is unconstitutional.
The question was whether Elmore was in fact
mentally disabled.
He was tested. And the State Department of
Disabilities and Special Needs
finds that Edward Lee
Elmore is mentally retarded.
Elmore's death sentence
was commuted to life in prison.
After nearly 28 years, Elmore was finally
leaving death row.
- Sorry. That's exactly what I did.
I get Mr. Elmore - on the phone.
I said, "Hey,
you're going to be leaving death row."
"I'm not going to die?" "No,
well, not there."
Elmore's life had been spared.
But Diana hadn't fought
for years to see Elmore
die behind bars.
Her team had one last
hope to get him a new trial.
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
would be the highest court
ever to hear Elmore's case.
The Fourth Circuit has
the reputation of being
the most conservative
federal appellate court in the country.
So we felt that our chances
of prevailing were very slight.
In yet another face-off
with Donald Zelenka,
the Fourth Circuit's three-judge panel
heard oral arguments
in September of 2010,
and remarkably,
they came down hard on Zelenka.
The judges have some
moral righteous indignation
in their voices in what they're saying.
Even though the judges seemed to be raising
some serious questions,
I came out of the argument feeling negative
about our prospects.
I didn't think the court
had much incentive to
overturn his conviction.
We didn't hear anything
for month after month.
14 months went by.
And then I get an email in my inbox.
Heart stops. I start hyperventilating.
I clicked on it,
and the opinion is
190-something pages long. And...
like, where is the good part?
- The most conservative appellate court
- in the nation
Had ruled 2-1 that Elmore
deserved a new trial.
- Everyone in the death penalty community,
- "What happened?
"We don't win like that, and not there!"
But we did.
The state was reluctant to retry the case,
knowing the evidence
the defense had unearthed
could implicate both
police and prosecutors.
So they offered Elmore a plea bargain.
And the prosecutor asked,
"Is there anything short
of outright dismissal
of all charges
that we can do to settle this matter?"
And I said, "In fact there is.
He goes free at the bond hearing
and he is going to
continue to say the truth
he's said all of these years,
'I'm innocent.'"
And the prosecutor said, "Okay."
But the plea required that
Elmore say in open court
- that the state could likely prove
their charges against him - at a trial.
It wasn't the exoneration
they were hoping for,
but it would mean freedom.
Here tonight, he was once on death row.
Now he is a free man.
After 30 years, Edward Elmore was released
from prison today.
Oh, thank the lord.
Uh... Uh... Uh...
Give me a minute. I'm kind of
a little overwhelmed right now.
Uh...
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.
Elmore moved back in with his sister,
and has begun the process of adjusting
to a world very different
from the one he left.
Eddie's case taught me a lot of things
about our justice system.
It taught me to be distrustful,
skeptical. Geography can
make the difference.
Money, of course. Gender,
of course. Race is the one
that is just a dagger to the heart.
But it also taught me
to never give up on it.
That even 30 years later,
someone will listen.
As long as you don't give up, justice...
a white woman is brutally murdered...
- Blood spatter on the walls. The brutality
of the crime scene - was just unbelievable.
...and a black man is arrested.
- His fingerprint was found. There were
a number of - hairs on the victim's bed.
But after a death sentence,
a law intern has her doubts...
There was something wrong. I started seeing
what the lies were.
...and the case begins to unravel.
There are those that
have their hidden agenda.
Is it a fair trial if someone has lied?
Corruption is a theme of the day almost.
There was no way I was
going to let this case go.
There was a body on the water.
He was butchered and murdered.
Many people proclaim their innocence.
In this case, there are a number
of things that stink.
This man is remorseless.
He needs to pay for it with his life.
The electric chair
flashed in front of my eyes.
Get a conviction at all costs.
Let the truth fall where it may.
Good evening and welcome to Carolina.
Tonight we're coming to you
from the city of Greenwood,
a diverse city and one
that has the distinction
of having the widest
main street in the world.
Greenwood is a very small community.
- Everybody seems to know everybody.
We're related - to everybody here.
It is very tight-knit.
So when the news came out
about this horrendous murder,
it was devastating.
On a cold Monday morning in 1982,
the bruised and beaten body
of 75-year-old Dorothy
Edwards was discovered
in this upscale home.
Dorothy Edwards, she was just
a loved woman in the community.
And she had been horribly killed.
Dorothy was known as a graceful
and charming woman
with a beautiful singing voice
and a wonderful sense of humor.
The next-door neighbor, Mr. Holloway,
had noticed a couple of
newspapers had piled up
and he went over to check on her.
On January 19th, 1982, inside the home,
Holloway told police he found
signs of struggle everywhere.
A heavy glass ashtray
shattered on the living room floor.
A pair of bloody ice tongs.
Dorothy Edwards was
found dead in her closet.
The brutality of the crime scene,
the blood,
the way the body was,
and the stab wounds,
postmortem, it was just...
totally unbelievable.
Dorothy's body had 52 wounds,
11 broken ribs and abrasions on her vagina.
- And the state forensic team gathered
what evidence - was inside the home.
Hair samples, they say,
were found on the bed,
blood in various places,
outside there were some fingerprints.
In a crime scene wiped
clean of finger prints,
police believe the killer made a mistake.
A thumb print found on the back door.
Dorothy's neighbor,
James Holloway, told police
that Edward Lee Elmore,
a 23-year-old handyman, worked for Dorothy
from time to time.
Although Elmore had never
been convicted of a felony,
police matched his fingerprints
from other misdemeanor arrests
and issued a warrant to bring him in,
accusing him of murder and rape,
among lesser charges.
Greenwood Police went
looking for Elmore 36 hours after
Dorothy's body was found.
I was working second shift
with the detective division
and the call came in
saying that the suspect was
in ex-girlfriend, Mary's apartment.
I went up and knocked on the door.
The encounter was not what Detective
Vanlerberghe expected.
I told him that we had
a warrant for his arrest.
And I told him it was for murder.
His demeanor at that time
was so nonchalant, just...
"Oh, okay,"
which is totally out of context for anybody
I've ever dealt with before
in a situation like that.
No outburst or violent behavior. Just...
like, "Oh, well".
Police took hair and
blood samples and placed
him in the county jail house.
Even Elmore's public defender had doubts
about his innocence.
Many people will proclaim
constantly their innocence
and I cannot remember
Mr. Elmore vociferously
proclaiming his innocence
and I got the feeling that
there might be something
for him to hide.
Elmore's case came to trial
only 82 days after his arrest.
Prosecutors said Dorothy had
been killed on Saturday night
when Elmore was alone and had no alibi.
You want to find out
whether or not Mr. Elmore
had any alibis.
And, uh, we found none. And Mr. Elmore,
he was not very cooperative.
He wouldn't hardly talk to me.
Police found small spots of blood
matching Dorothy's blood type
on Elmore's pants and shoes.
Back in the '80s, DNA analysis
had not been developed.
When DNA was available
it came back positive
that it was the victim's blood.
Prosecutors also told the jury that
dozens of Elmore's pubic hairs
were found on Dorothy's bed.
And finally,
prosecutors presented James Gilliam,
a prison inmate who claimed
to have heard Elmore confess
to the crime while in jail.
That came out of nowhere.
And that just rocked me.
Mr. Elmore told Gilliam that, "I went down
and robbed the lady.
And she started
screaming. And I killed her."
That was the linchpin.
The jury took less than five hours
to reach a verdict.
Elmore was convicted
and sentenced to death.
But the conviction was
overturned on appeal.
There was one juror who was reluctant
to impose the death penalty.
And the trial judge went into
the jury room and put pressure
on the holdout juror
to impose the death sentence.
A new trial was ordered. Same prosecutor,
same defense attorneys, same outcome.
A third trial was held to
reconsider the sentence
and again, the decision was unanimous.
Thirty six jurors had
determined that Edward Elmore
should be put to death.
Eleven years later,
a 34-year-old law student
named Diana Holt
came to the South Carolina
Death Penalty Resource Center
as a summer intern.
One of her first assignments
was reviewing Elmore's case.
The first time I saw the name,
Edward Lee Elmore, I was
reading through the transcript.
Diana started having suspicions that
Elmore's trials weren't fair.
She was troubled that
Elmore's defense attorney
didn't call any expert witnesses
and rarely challenged any
of the prosecution's evidence.
Diana knew that an incompetent defense
was grounds for an appeal.
I felt like there was something wrong.
I needed to meet Eddie and uh,
give him an eyeball
up and down, size him up.
And who she met wasn't what she expected.
Meeting him, it is just this biggest,
sweetest smile,
and he is so docile and gentle
and quiet and happy.
Happy. How is he on death row and happy?
It just didn't make any sense.
There was no way I was going
to let Elmore's case go.
- You trust God
no matter how bad it looks,
it's not bad as it seems.
But our God is still in control.
Bishop Emanuel Spearman
was pastor to Edward Lee Elmore,
the man accused of
murdering Dorothy Edwards.
I had come to know Edward in the late '70s.
I pastored his home church.
And his mother and I was best of friends.
And they didn't have a whole lot.
One of 11 siblings,
Elmore's father was killed
by a hit-and-run driver
when Elmore was two.
He grew up in dire poverty.
He had kind of a low IQ. I
was a special ed teacher,
so I knew that he was slow.
And when I went to Greenwood jail
and I had spoke with him,
he really didn't know why he was there.
And, and that bothered me.
A hard worker, Elmore got by on odd jobs
like cleaning gutters
and washing windows,
including for Dorothy Edwards.
But 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 is a hidden agenda.
I'm positive that race played a factor
in Edward Lee Elmore's trials.
And make no mistake about it
but I think most of that 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 ask him, "When did you start
working on his case?"
Eight days before the trail began.
That's zero time. You can't even read
all of the evidence
and assess it and crunch it.
In retrospect perhaps I should have asked
for more time.
I never have proclaimed to be,
you know, the best lawyer that
ever graced the courtroom.
Overworked and underpaid,
Mr. Anderson also had
a reputation as a drinker.
That's fair. That's a fair accusation.
I have had certain...
I guess you could say, problems, with it,
but I can say this categorically
that I was totally
clear-headed and not drinking
during those trials.
Every one of them.
But on the other hand, you know,
I go out occasionally. And uh,
I'm not as bad as I used to be, but...
In contrast,
Prosecutor William T. Jones III
known as Willie T., was considered
a master of the courtroom.
Willie T.'s track record spoke for itself.
He lost very few. He was very dramatic.
I've seen that man
cry in front of the jury.
Mr. Jones in the courtroom
probably could outperform
Sir Lawrence Olivier.
Let's put it that way.
He could overpower you,
over control you, and...
he was not beyond saying
things that he couldn't prove
if they weren't challenged.
Early in the first trial,
Anderson challenged Jones by objecting
that a single thumb print was not enough
to arrest Elmore.
In order to obtain an arrest warrant,
the police presented an
upside down thumb print
on the back outside door frame.
Well, that's exactly consistent with,
you know,
cleaning the windows. Cleaning the door.
That is not probable cause
in anywhere else in America
that I'm aware of.
But Willie T. said, "Oh, well, I'm glad
you all brought that up.
The forensic pathologist let us know
that she had located Negroid pubic hairs
on the victim's uh, chest and abdomen.
The defense shut their mouths and sat down.
If Elmore's hair had in fact been found
on the body,
this was a new and explosive claim.
A claim that went unchallenged
by Geddes Anderson.
Did you ask to see that evidence?
You'd have to look
at the transcript to see.
I don't know whether I did or not.
According to the transcript you didn't.
Why would you not have
asked to see that evidence?
It seems like a pretty important evidence.
- Well, I don't know how to answer
that. I guess - you'll just have to
Take some non-answer to that question.
Mysteriously, the pubic hair Willie T. said
was found on 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 thought
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 you 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 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 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're going to do is
- you photograph it.
There was no pictures
of the hair on the bed.
There was pictures of everything
except for the most
crucial evidence in the case.
So it became obvious to me
something wasn't quite right.
The only photo of the bed shows it covered
with police camera equipment,
contaminating any evidence.
The question became, "Where did the hairs
in the baggy come from?"
- There was no question. They
pulled those hairs - from his body.
- And they pulled a lot of them. And I
don't think - they were ever on the bed.
I believe it was planted.
Diana was starting to see a pattern.
There was all this ineffective
assistance of counsel.
There was no basis for probable cause
to arrest Mr. Elmore anyway,
and there was no list
of Negroid pubic hairs
in the original police inventory.
There was no item like that.
As Diana dug deeper into the case,
a new suspect began to emerge.
She thought the next-door neighbor
who discovered Dorothy's body
had acted suspiciously.
Really? He put his gloves on before he went
to open the door?
That grabbed me right away.
In order to get a new trial
for Edward Lee Elmore,
Diana needed to find grounds to appeal.
When she finally read what Elmore said
in the original trial,
she felt more determined
than ever to fight back.
I started reading Eddie's
testimony and it got me. Yeah.
And the more it went along,
the more it got me.
I remember when he was cross-examined
because for a long time,
Edward didn't say anything or testify.
And he just sat there as if,
"Why am I here?
Why am I going through this?"
- You want this court to believe
you're always - this quiet, don't you?
Well, sir,
you asked me something. I answered.
You want them to always believe
you're real quiet and polite
- No, sir.
Edward didn't understand
what he was talking about.
He didn't understand how to defend himself
or what to say.
Why did you hit her with this ashtray?
- I didn't hit her with it.
- Why did you stick her - with this knife?
- I didn't stick her with no knife, sir.
- Tell us how it felt
- when she reached down and jerked
these pubic hairs - out of that area.
- Sir, she didn't
jerk them off me.
- 'Cause I wasn't there.
- She tried to get up - off the bed.
- And get out of there.
- I wasn't there, sir.
- You caught her, started pounding her
- with your fist.
No, sir.
- No, sir.
- No, sir. I wasn't there.
That's all I have to ask you.
In his closing argument
to the jury,
Willie T. portrayed
Elmore as a sadistic killer
who tortured his victim
before beating her to death.
But Diana thought that
the depiction of Elmore
was highly prejudicial
and the evidence riddled with holes.
She also thought Elmore had done well
under the circumstances.
Even under withering cross-examination
by brilliant Willie T.,
Mr. Elmore said what he's always said.
Very 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 of my little spindly neck.
I was like, "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 the police.
He decides that he's going to go to
the other side neighbor
and get her to come in the house with him.
So he's at the closet
door again and he decides
to put gloves on.
And then he opens the door,
and lo and behold,
there she was.
Really
Diana was also suspicious that Holloway
immediately told police
who the perpetrator could be.
He told law enforcement, you know,
"There was a boy here
a couple of weeks back
who washed her windows.
And if you get me her checkbook,
I can get his name for you."
And that was Edward Lee Elmore. That boy.
Even more surprising was that the police
allowed Holloway,
a possible suspect,
to clean the crime scene
the day after Dorothy's body was found.
Law enforcement turned the crime scene over
to Jimmy Holloway to clean up.
He could do whatever he wanted in there.
There was no law enforcement presence
watching what happened.
There was no preservation
of the crime scene.
Diana needed answers
so she drove 90 miles to Greenwood,
South Carolina,
and showed up unannounced
at James Holloway's
front door.
Mrs. Holloway answered the
door. She led me into the den
and he was sitting on
his big overstuffed recliner.
So I introduced myself
and he proceeded to tell me,
well, you know, really,
"The only one who could kill her
and get away with it was me,
the way she trusted me."
That was one of the
toughest moments in my career
of not reacting, "Holy..."
He also told me that law
enforcement suspected him
because all the neighbors
had told law enforcement that,
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 this weekend. And...
But somehow she didn't
get to go on that trip to Tryon,
North Carolina, that weekend.
Diana realized that 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.
"She was just sitting there on her settee,
watching TV.
He just came in and he started on her.
It took her a good 20 minutes to die."
He just went on. And you didn't...
There wasn't any nudging or prompting.
He was relishing talking
about all of the things.
It was a,
a gully washer of dumbfoundedness that day.
Diana's suspicions about James Holloway
were never pursued.
He passed away in 1994.
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.
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 Zolenka
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 Earnest 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 Gilliam
knew Bishop Spearman.
- And before the hearing,
Gilliam told Spearman - the truth.
James Gilliam and I go
back I guess all our life.
One night he called me and he told me,
"I lied and my conscience is bothering me."
Gilliam said he made a deal
with the prosecutor
to testify against Elmore
in exchange for release
from prison.
But with Elmore facing
the electric chair he felt bad
about what he had done.
I said, "James,
make it right." And I got excited because
I felt like, well...
once this comes out that Ed would be free.
Gilliam said,
- "The testimony that I gave
in these prior trials - was false."
That he made up this story
to try to get better treatment for himself
on his criminal sentence.
Gilliam would go on to
state that the only thing
Elmore had ever said
was that he didn't kill Dorothy Edwards.
But Diana's team also
felt they needed to refute
Dorothy Edwards' time of death
which the medical examiner
had placed on Saturday night
during the only hours Elmore had no alibi.
Diana hired forensic expert,
Jonathan Arden.
- In my opinion the victim died in
the early afternoon - on Sunday.
That time frame makes
sense with the rigor mortis,
the lack of decomposition
but when the state's
medical examiner was asked,
"Why did you recommend
that the time of death
be 65 hours prior to the time of discovery
given all the evidence of the rigor mortis,
the lack of decomposition?"
- she said under oath, "Because that's what
- they told me.
The police told me that's
when they thought it happened."
But even with all the evidence
in Elmore's favor,
Diana and Jensen knew the biggest hurdle
would be explaining the blood
on Elmore's pants to the court.
The blood that was supposedly
found on the pants and shoes
matched the blood type of Mrs. Edwards.
And this was a very
difficult testimony to rebut.
As Jensen cross-examined the state's
blood expert,
Diana went through the
files on the defense table
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. And 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 lifelong.
- 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 Judge Kinard 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."
Judge Kinard had left Elmore's fate
up to other judges to decide.
I became... Literally, became hysterical.
Completely sobbing, running,
I threw it at John Blume.
And he... "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 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
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."
While Edward Lee Elmore
sat on death row
waiting for his appeal to move forward,
Diana Holt took on
other death penalty cases.
In one she was able to get a
last-minute stay of execution
over the objections of
Assistant Attorney General,
Donald Zelenka.
Zelenka was determined to discredit Diana.
Zelenka dug through Diana's past,
looking for anything
to get her off the case.
In April, 2000,
he called her to a deposition.
It was at the attorney general's office.
There were six attorneys
across the table from me
and all of them lined up like this.
Looking.
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."
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.
And the ruse was that I would,
um, exchange sex for money.
We left Bourbon Street together,
got in his car
and one of the two guys came in.
He got on the passenger side.
I was scrunched in the middle.
Diana's friend pulled a gun
and demanded money.
The driver gave them $60.
They jumped out of the car
and ran.
Made it about three blocks.
Pulled over by the New
Orleans Police Department,
up against the wall. The
victim was a US Marshal.
So it's like Dumb and Dumber a little bit.
You know,
what do you expect from an airhead 17
I pled guilty to armed robbery
and, um... off I went to
the Louisiana Correctional
Institute for Women.
One day, the prosecutor in
my case came to the prison
to visit and he said,
"I just want you to know
that you don't have to
be what you did that day,
and you can make it,
and you can be somebody."
And I... I'm still...
Why wouldn't every
prosecutor want to do that?
Diana began studying
in the prison's law library,
- researching cases of fellow inmates and
sending letters - to the presiding judges.
She even had one woman's sentence reduced.
Doing the few things that
I did that made an impact,
it was like, "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 Dorothy Edwards' body.
- But when the defense had petitioned
to see the hair - it had gone missing.
Now, 16 years later,
the hair suddenly turned up.
The prosecution has an obligation
to turn over to the defense
anything which is favorable.
And 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 and asked for the judge
to set a hearing.
It was December 20th or 21st.
- We were going to have, you know,
a 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.
All rise!
Judge Ernest Kinard again presided,
the same judge who had stated
Elmore may well be not guilty.
Lab corps has entered a report
indicating there are
hairs there from someone
other than Dorothy Edwards
and there were no hairs from anyone
of African-American descent.
Zelenka acknowledged
- that the evidence should've been given
- to the defense
But argued that only one of the hairs
found on Dorothy's body
had sufficient DNA to read.
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
Unexpectedly, rather than adjourn
and read the filings before ruling,
Judge Kinard 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.
After 22 years on death row,
Edward Elmore was in lockdown,
a special holding cell for
inmates awaiting execution.
With only 23 days to go, Diana filed
a last-minute appeal
and got a stay of execution.
But this was only a temporary solution.
If Elmore was to survive, they would need
a new strategy.
The Supreme Court issues a landmark
death penalty decision.
And a Supreme Court decision from 2002
gave them an opportunity.
In a stunning reversal, of course, the US
Supreme Court today ruled
executing mentally disabled
criminals is unconstitutional.
The question was whether Elmore was in fact
mentally disabled.
He was tested. And the State Department of
Disabilities and Special Needs
finds that Edward Lee
Elmore is mentally retarded.
Elmore's death sentence
was commuted to life in prison.
After nearly 28 years, Elmore was finally
leaving death row.
- Sorry. That's exactly what I did.
I get Mr. Elmore - on the phone.
I said, "Hey,
you're going to be leaving death row."
"I'm not going to die?" "No,
well, not there."
Elmore's life had been spared.
But Diana hadn't fought
for years to see Elmore
die behind bars.
Her team had one last
hope to get him a new trial.
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
would be the highest court
ever to hear Elmore's case.
The Fourth Circuit has
the reputation of being
the most conservative
federal appellate court in the country.
So we felt that our chances
of prevailing were very slight.
In yet another face-off
with Donald Zelenka,
the Fourth Circuit's three-judge panel
heard oral arguments
in September of 2010,
and remarkably,
they came down hard on Zelenka.
The judges have some
moral righteous indignation
in their voices in what they're saying.
Even though the judges seemed to be raising
some serious questions,
I came out of the argument feeling negative
about our prospects.
I didn't think the court
had much incentive to
overturn his conviction.
We didn't hear anything
for month after month.
14 months went by.
And then I get an email in my inbox.
Heart stops. I start hyperventilating.
I clicked on it,
and the opinion is
190-something pages long. And...
like, where is the good part?
- The most conservative appellate court
- in the nation
Had ruled 2-1 that Elmore
deserved a new trial.
- Everyone in the death penalty community,
- "What happened?
"We don't win like that, and not there!"
But we did.
The state was reluctant to retry the case,
knowing the evidence
the defense had unearthed
could implicate both
police and prosecutors.
So they offered Elmore a plea bargain.
And the prosecutor asked,
"Is there anything short
of outright dismissal
of all charges
that we can do to settle this matter?"
And I said, "In fact there is.
He goes free at the bond hearing
and he is going to
continue to say the truth
he's said all of these years,
'I'm innocent.'"
And the prosecutor said, "Okay."
But the plea required that
Elmore say in open court
- that the state could likely prove
their charges against him - at a trial.
It wasn't the exoneration
they were hoping for,
but it would mean freedom.
Here tonight, he was once on death row.
Now he is a free man.
After 30 years, Edward Elmore was released
from prison today.
Oh, thank the lord.
Uh... Uh... Uh...
Give me a minute. I'm kind of
a little overwhelmed right now.
Uh...
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.
Elmore moved back in with his sister,
and has begun the process of adjusting
to a world very different
from the one he left.
Eddie's case taught me a lot of things
about our justice system.
It taught me to be distrustful,
skeptical. Geography can
make the difference.
Money, of course. Gender,
of course. Race is the one
that is just a dagger to the heart.
But it also taught me
to never give up on it.
That even 30 years later,
someone will listen.
As long as you don't give up, justice...