Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 16, 2006 23:37:52 GMT -5
Prosecutors await ruling on DNA in Jason Sharp case
By DAVID HOLDEN, The Huntsville Times
Madison County prosecutors will learn Monday if they will be able to use new DNA evidence in county's oldest capital murder case.
The trial for Jason Sharp, who has been waiting in jail for nearly seven years, is scheduled to begin July 24.
Sharp's lawyers, Alan Mann and Barry Abston, said Friday that they don't have enough time to evaluate the new evidence less than two weeks before the trial. They asked Circuit Judge Laura W. Hamilton to throw out the DNA results.
Sharp, 28, is charged with murder during a rape in the death of Tracy Lynn Morris, 33, who was attacked in her Sheri Drivehome on Jan. 2, 1999, and died a few hours later at Huntsville Hospital. Police arrested Sharp the same month.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
Sharp had confessed, but his former defense attorneys, Brice Callaway and Reid Webster, argued that police had tampered with the evidence. A police investigator had given the defense lawyers only a portion of the tape of the confession. Hamilton threw out the confession.
The appellate courts upheld her decision.
Roger Morrision, a DNA expert with the Alabama Department Sciences, on his own initiative conducted the new DNA test earlier this year. The tests were for semen on carpet fibers and girl thingyl swabs.
Morrison, aware that the trial was drawing near, conducted the test to take advantage of technological advancements since 1999, said Deputy District Attorney Robert Broussard.
"We have better technology," he said. "It does prejudice their client. It would be a miscarriage of justice to dismiss it."
Mann said he and Abston received the results of that test Monday. They did not know the new DNA test had been done until last week when Abston had gone to Morrison's Huntsville office to discuss the original DNA test, he said.
"For them to turn it (the new results) over at the 11th hour is
unreasonable," he said. "Some testing was going on in March and April of this year and nobody knew it."
The defense needs an expert to interpret the results and there is not enough time before the trial. The court should not allow the new test to be introduced as evidence, Mann said.
Broussard asked Hamilton to delay the trial for a month, if necessary, to allow defense experts to analyze the results of the new DNA test.
Hamilton said her job is to ensure a fair trial for both the state and the defendant.
"I will not continue the case unless the victims in this case request it in writing," she said.
Ralph Morris, Traci Morris's father, immediately took up a pad and pen and scribbled the request.
Judge to rule Monday
Hamilton said she will rule Monday.
Hamilton granted the defense motion to bar testimony from Ralph Morris during the evidence phase of the trial.
Hamilton said she will rule later on a defense motion to remove the threat of the death penalty. Abston said that the death penalty should not be considered because the prosecution has not complied with the procedural rules for such a case.
Source : The Huntsville Times
www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/115295501157350.
By DAVID HOLDEN, The Huntsville Times
Madison County prosecutors will learn Monday if they will be able to use new DNA evidence in county's oldest capital murder case.
The trial for Jason Sharp, who has been waiting in jail for nearly seven years, is scheduled to begin July 24.
Sharp's lawyers, Alan Mann and Barry Abston, said Friday that they don't have enough time to evaluate the new evidence less than two weeks before the trial. They asked Circuit Judge Laura W. Hamilton to throw out the DNA results.
Sharp, 28, is charged with murder during a rape in the death of Tracy Lynn Morris, 33, who was attacked in her Sheri Drivehome on Jan. 2, 1999, and died a few hours later at Huntsville Hospital. Police arrested Sharp the same month.
The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
Sharp had confessed, but his former defense attorneys, Brice Callaway and Reid Webster, argued that police had tampered with the evidence. A police investigator had given the defense lawyers only a portion of the tape of the confession. Hamilton threw out the confession.
The appellate courts upheld her decision.
Roger Morrision, a DNA expert with the Alabama Department Sciences, on his own initiative conducted the new DNA test earlier this year. The tests were for semen on carpet fibers and girl thingyl swabs.
Morrison, aware that the trial was drawing near, conducted the test to take advantage of technological advancements since 1999, said Deputy District Attorney Robert Broussard.
"We have better technology," he said. "It does prejudice their client. It would be a miscarriage of justice to dismiss it."
Mann said he and Abston received the results of that test Monday. They did not know the new DNA test had been done until last week when Abston had gone to Morrison's Huntsville office to discuss the original DNA test, he said.
"For them to turn it (the new results) over at the 11th hour is
unreasonable," he said. "Some testing was going on in March and April of this year and nobody knew it."
The defense needs an expert to interpret the results and there is not enough time before the trial. The court should not allow the new test to be introduced as evidence, Mann said.
Broussard asked Hamilton to delay the trial for a month, if necessary, to allow defense experts to analyze the results of the new DNA test.
Hamilton said her job is to ensure a fair trial for both the state and the defendant.
"I will not continue the case unless the victims in this case request it in writing," she said.
Ralph Morris, Traci Morris's father, immediately took up a pad and pen and scribbled the request.
Judge to rule Monday
Hamilton said she will rule Monday.
Hamilton granted the defense motion to bar testimony from Ralph Morris during the evidence phase of the trial.
Hamilton said she will rule later on a defense motion to remove the threat of the death penalty. Abston said that the death penalty should not be considered because the prosecution has not complied with the procedural rules for such a case.
Source : The Huntsville Times
www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/115295501157350.