DeniseJ
09-29-2004, 07:35 AM
Freed from death row, he promotes DNA testing
By STEPHANIE HUBBS
September 22, 2004
His life could have ended in the Maryland gas chamber, but today Kirk Bloodsworth is free, laughing and smiling as he promotes a book that bears his name and tells of his narrow escape.
"This man has become a spokesman for justice all over the world. This man, who was the subject of the most unimaginable injustice, has become a force for justice," said Tim Junkin, author of "Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA." "And I've found that to be truly an act of grace."
Bloodsworth, 43, a Baltimore native, was convicted of raping and killing 9-year-old Dawn Venice Hamilton in Maryland in 1984. Throughout the years he was in prison, Bloodsworth maintained his innocence.
After breakthrough DNA testing of semen found on the girl's panties, Bloodsworth was released from prison in 1993. Last year, DNA evidence linked a convicted sex offender whom Bloodsworth had known in prison to the girl's death.
Bloodsworth and Junkin, a Maryland lawyer and author, met through Bloodsworth's defense attorney.
Now Bloodsworth is a full-time lobbyist for criminal justice reform at the Justice Project here. He is also keeping busy with a 25-city book tour, making stops along the East Coast and in traditionally pro-death penalty states like Texas.
A bill to fund DNA testing for convicts and to help states clear a backlog of DNA tests in pending criminal cases passed the House last year 357-67. A similar bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and co-sponsored by 38 Republicans and Democrats, is pending in the Senate.
The bill would grant any inmate convicted of a federal crime the right to petition for DNA testing to support a claim of innocence.
Asked who the bill's opponents in Congress are, Bloodsworth joked, "The senators from Texas, Alabama and Arizona. Yee haw."
And Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., does oppose the bill. "This is a political bill that should be killed as dead as a doornail," Sessions said in a statement. He said the bill would "take $100 million in federal taxpayer funds and give it to anti-death penalty groups for the defense of murderers and terrorists."
Bloodsworth said "politics" is slowing the bill's move through the Senate, twisting the word to sound like "a pile of ticks." He was adamant that the bill will not lead to a needlessly expensive set of DNA appeals by inmates who are not innocent. "No, there's nothing frivolous about it," he said. "I wouldn't think that any innocent man sitting on death row now deserves the death penalty."
By STEPHANIE HUBBS
September 22, 2004
His life could have ended in the Maryland gas chamber, but today Kirk Bloodsworth is free, laughing and smiling as he promotes a book that bears his name and tells of his narrow escape.
"This man has become a spokesman for justice all over the world. This man, who was the subject of the most unimaginable injustice, has become a force for justice," said Tim Junkin, author of "Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA." "And I've found that to be truly an act of grace."
Bloodsworth, 43, a Baltimore native, was convicted of raping and killing 9-year-old Dawn Venice Hamilton in Maryland in 1984. Throughout the years he was in prison, Bloodsworth maintained his innocence.
After breakthrough DNA testing of semen found on the girl's panties, Bloodsworth was released from prison in 1993. Last year, DNA evidence linked a convicted sex offender whom Bloodsworth had known in prison to the girl's death.
Bloodsworth and Junkin, a Maryland lawyer and author, met through Bloodsworth's defense attorney.
Now Bloodsworth is a full-time lobbyist for criminal justice reform at the Justice Project here. He is also keeping busy with a 25-city book tour, making stops along the East Coast and in traditionally pro-death penalty states like Texas.
A bill to fund DNA testing for convicts and to help states clear a backlog of DNA tests in pending criminal cases passed the House last year 357-67. A similar bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and co-sponsored by 38 Republicans and Democrats, is pending in the Senate.
The bill would grant any inmate convicted of a federal crime the right to petition for DNA testing to support a claim of innocence.
Asked who the bill's opponents in Congress are, Bloodsworth joked, "The senators from Texas, Alabama and Arizona. Yee haw."
And Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., does oppose the bill. "This is a political bill that should be killed as dead as a doornail," Sessions said in a statement. He said the bill would "take $100 million in federal taxpayer funds and give it to anti-death penalty groups for the defense of murderers and terrorists."
Bloodsworth said "politics" is slowing the bill's move through the Senate, twisting the word to sound like "a pile of ticks." He was adamant that the bill will not lead to a needlessly expensive set of DNA appeals by inmates who are not innocent. "No, there's nothing frivolous about it," he said. "I wouldn't think that any innocent man sitting on death row now deserves the death penalty."