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Post by Anja on Jun 22, 2006 18:01:00 GMT -5
TENNESSEE----impending execution
Appeals court rejects Tennessee death row inmate's DNA request
A state appeals court refused Thursday to approve DNA testing sought by convicted killer Sedley Alley.
He is scheduled for execution June 28th.
The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a Memphis judge's ruling that Alley was not entitled to the testing on evidence gathered at the scene of the 1985 murder he was convicted of committing.
Judge Otis Higgs ruled May 30th that Alley failed to show DNA testing could have kept him from being indicted or convicted if the technology had existed at the time of his trial in 1987.
State law allows such post-conviction testing only for attempts to prove innocence.
Higgs said Alley's petition appeared aimed instead at delaying his execution.
Alley was convicted of killing 19-year-old Suzanne Collins, who was beaten and sexually assaulted with a sharpened tree limb.
(source: Associated Press)
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