Raymond Bonner's new book, Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong, is about to be published and was noted earlier by DPIC. An excerpt from the book appeared recently in The Atlantic. Andrew Cohen, also writing in The Atlantic, called it "the book of the century about the death penalty." Cohen commented that “Bonner's book comes at a crucial time in the modern history of the death penalty. It comes at a time when views are slowly hardening against the current unreliable and expensive system. It comes at a time when several states are looking to eliminate their capital regimes. It comes at a time when even the conservative Supreme Court has sent a signal that capital cases must be handled better. It's a book that surely comes too late for some death row inmates but perhaps just in time for others.” In Anatomy for Injustice, Bonner recounts the case of Edward Lee Elmore, a man with intellectual disabilities, who has been tried, convicted and sentenced to death three times for a murder, and was recently granted a fourth trial when the reviewing court acknowledged “grave questions about whether it really was Elmore who murdered [the victim].” Read the excerpt from Anatomy for Injustice.
Edward Lee Elmore was released from prison in South Carolina on March 2 after agreeing to a plea arrangement in which he maintained his innocence but agreed the state could re-convict him of murder in a new trial. He had been on death row for nearly 30 years after being convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the sexual assault and murder of an elderly woman in Greenwood, South Carolina. The state's case was based on evidence gathered from a questionable investigation and on testimony with glaring discrepancies. Elmore’s appellate lawyers discovered evidence pointing to Elmore's possible innocence that prosecutors had withheld. Originally, state officials repeatedly claimed the evidence had been lost. The evidence included a hair sample collected from the crime scene. After being tested for DNA, the evidence suggested an unknown Caucasian man may have been the killer. In February 2010, Elmore was found to have intellectual disabilities and thus was ineligible for execution; he was taken off death row. In November 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted him a new trial because of the prosecutorial misconduct in handling the evidence. The court found there was “persuasive evidence that the agents were outright dishonest,” and there was “further evidence of police ineptitude and deceit.”
On February 29, Arizona is scheduled to execute Robert Moorman, who was sentenced to death for a 1984 murder. Moorman's representatives have said the crime was committed after years of sexual abuse by the defendant’s adoptive mother, whom he then killed and dismembered her body. Moorman was diagnosed with mental retardation and attended special education classes while in public school. His first stay at a mental institution occurred when he was 13. At a recent clemency hearing, Moorman said he did not remember the details of the murder. His health has slowly deteriorated while in prison. He had a stroke in 2007 and underwent a quintuple bypass last November. Moorman was born to a 15-year-old girl who drank heavily and engaged in prostitution, according to court records and testimony at his clemency hearing. His father abandoned him and his mother died at age 17. He then went to live with his maternal grandparents until he was put up for adoption because of his grandfather’s alcohol abuse. UPDATE: Moorman was executed on Feb. 29.