Wednesday 30 January 2008

Prosecutorial tunnel vision costs man his youth?

A recent David Lee Scott photo showing him in prison.


David L. Scott was freed from prison Monday based on DNA evidence, he had been incarcerated since he was a teenager, he is now nearly 40.

Press accounts note:

Scott, 39, had been serving a 50-year prison sentence for the 1984 murder of Loretta Keith, who was bludgeoned to death in her bed with a hydraulic jack. Authorities said that DNA testing not available in 1984 — including analysis of blood found on a nylon stocking at Keith’s home — cleared Scott.

Prosecutors said the DNA test results showed that Kevin Mark Weeks, 44, of LaGrange, Ky., was the person who killed Keith.

More after the jump

Authorities said they focused on Weeks, Lagrange, Ky., after a relative of an Indiana man who was convicted in Keith’s bludgeoning death and sentenced to 50 years in prison asked Indiana State Police to take another look at evidence in the case.

A detective, who began his review in September, found that in 1985, a public defender’s office investigator interviewed a man who said he drove Weeks to Keith’s home the day she was slain, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.

After circling the neighborhood in his car, the man said, he returned to the home and heard faint screams from inside. Minutes later, he said, he saw Weeks emerge from the home with a bag of stolen items, according to the affidavit.

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