Yesterday, Judge Otis Higgs of Memphis, issued his formal opinion rejecting Sedley Alley's request for DNA testing. As mentioned in yesterday's blog, the judge refused to even hear the testimony of two expert witnesses from the defense, but, sadly, the failure of justice didn't stop there.

Reading Judge Higgs' opinion yesterday evening, I couldn't help but be astonished at the lengths to which our criminal justice system can go to avoid fairness. The legalese and myopic focus of judges, prosecutors, and sometimes Governors and state representatives as well quite simply shocks me.

For a taste, the Judge refused to hear testimony from a private investigator showing the many problems with the Sedley Alley conviction. Evidence that Alley was under police surveillance at the time the murder occurred for instance. Or evidence pointing to another man as the potential killer. In fact the judge referred numerous times to the "overwhelming" evidence against Alley, and specifically focused on Alley's supposed confession.

If you've been following this case, this should strike you as very surprising. It's true, Alley gave a "detailed confession," but the supposed details simply do not match those of the crime! The Judge even references this (obliquely) in his opinion saying that Alley claimed to have stabbed Marie Collins in the head with the pointed end of the screwdriver, and then saying that the medical examiner stated that the wound on Collins' head could have been made by being struck by a screwdriver - but not by the pointed end! In 1989, eight different people confessed to being the Central Park rapist - and they all turned out to be innocent! Now of course all of this could be settled by a legitimate taping of Alley's entire confession, as mandated by law, but of a more than 2 hour confession, less than 1 hour is on tape, with seven different places where the tape was stopped.

But since this evidence wasn't presented at trial (some had been withheld from the defense until recently), Judge Higgs refused to hear any of it, allowing him legal cover in continually referring to the supposedly overwhelming evidence.

And this cover was important, because the "strong" case against Alley was Judge Higgs' reason to deny DNA testing. Apparently, with such an air-tight case, DNA pointing to another culprit would not absolutely have exonerated Alley, and therefore, he shouldn't be allowed to proceed with the testing.

As unbelievable as the previous statement may have been, it gets worse. The state argued that many of the pieces of evidence couldn't be tested because they had been destroyed or not maintained adequately. Wait! What!? That's right, the state has destroyed or contaminated evidence, including fluid samples and the tree branch so central to the case, so it should be allowed to execute Alley.

Now I know that this has been a long post, so let's review some quick points:

1) The state withheld evidence at trial, so that evidence is now inadmissible

2) The police improperly failed to record all of Alley's supposed confession

3) The state has destroyed or contaminated a large amount of potential DNA evidence, making it unavailable for testing.

4) The state claims that even if another person's semen, saliva, blood, and hair was found on Suzanne Collins' body, the conviction of Sedley Alley would still have gone without a hitch.

5) The Tennessee Supreme Court is likely to set another execution date for Alley today.