Supreme Court Rejects DNA Quest By Death-Row Inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of an Alabama death-row inmate seeking to establish his innocence through DNA testing.
Thomas Arthur is seeking to test key evidence in the case, the Associated Press reports. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed dismissal of Arthur’s habeas corpus action, saying courts may dismiss appeals filed too late.
The wife of victim Troy Wicker had testified at Arthur’s trial that she paid him to kill her husband. But at her own trial she testified an intruder had raped her and shot her husband.
“This action, seeking DNA testing of evidence, was filed 25 years after the crime, 15 years after his third conviction and death sentence, nine years after the conclusion of his appeals on direct review, five years after the conclusion of his state post-conviction proceedings, six years after the initial filing of his federal habeas petition, and four days before the Supreme Court denied his petition for writ of certiorari of his federal habeas petition,” the 11th Circuit wrote in the September opinion (PDF).
“There was no justification for Arthur’s failure to bring his request for physical evidence for DNA testing earlier to allow sufficient time for full adjudication on the merits of this claim.”
The case is Arthur v. King.
