Post by nadin on Apr 7, 2009 23:29:02 GMT -5
Letters to the editor - April 5
Published on Sunday, Apr 05, 2009
Follow the evidence
The man who brutally murdered Winda Snipes in 1997 in Highland Square is sitting on death row. Your March 26 editorial comparing Brett Hartmann to Clarence Elkins is misguided (''Final answer'').
Elkins' conviction was based almost entirely on the testimony of a 6-year-old girl, who later recanted her testimony.
Hartmann's conviction was based on a mountain of evidence.
After Brett Hartmann's conviction, a federal judge ordered testing when Hartmann swore ''whoever the DNA belongs to in the anal cavity is the real killer,'' because, he said, he never had anal sex with Snipes.
The semen found in the anal cavity was conclusively Hartmann's DNA. Semen found on the body is the most reliable DNA evidence.
We already have DNA, a bloody shirt found in his home with Snipes' blood on it, statements of a jail house informant, statements to the police the night of the crime and other evidence that adds up beyond doubt to Hartmann being the killer.
Testing hair and a condom now may show other people were in Snipes' apartment at some time, but would not clear Hartmann.
I understand why an attorney buying time for his condemned client would aim a cheap shot comparing Hartmann to Elkins, but we hope for more from an ''appropriately'' informed newspaper.
Sherri Bevan Walsh
Summit County Prosecutor
Akron
Editor's Note: On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay of Hartmann's execution.
www.ohio.com/editorial/vop/42488247.html
(I guess she is feeling the heat!)
Published on Sunday, Apr 05, 2009
Follow the evidence
The man who brutally murdered Winda Snipes in 1997 in Highland Square is sitting on death row. Your March 26 editorial comparing Brett Hartmann to Clarence Elkins is misguided (''Final answer'').
Elkins' conviction was based almost entirely on the testimony of a 6-year-old girl, who later recanted her testimony.
Hartmann's conviction was based on a mountain of evidence.
After Brett Hartmann's conviction, a federal judge ordered testing when Hartmann swore ''whoever the DNA belongs to in the anal cavity is the real killer,'' because, he said, he never had anal sex with Snipes.
The semen found in the anal cavity was conclusively Hartmann's DNA. Semen found on the body is the most reliable DNA evidence.
We already have DNA, a bloody shirt found in his home with Snipes' blood on it, statements of a jail house informant, statements to the police the night of the crime and other evidence that adds up beyond doubt to Hartmann being the killer.
Testing hair and a condom now may show other people were in Snipes' apartment at some time, but would not clear Hartmann.
I understand why an attorney buying time for his condemned client would aim a cheap shot comparing Hartmann to Elkins, but we hope for more from an ''appropriately'' informed newspaper.
Sherri Bevan Walsh
Summit County Prosecutor
Akron
Editor's Note: On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay of Hartmann's execution.
www.ohio.com/editorial/vop/42488247.html
(I guess she is feeling the heat!)