Legal Commentary

Innocent Man Will Be Released From Death Row

By TChris

Michael Blair has been saved from a death sentence imposed for a murder he didn't commit.

The ruling comes less than a month after prosecutors acknowledged that DNA evidence does not implicate Blair and shows that another man, now deceased, is a plausible suspect in the girl's death.

That man, identified in court papers only as Suspect No. 4, learned where 7-year-old Ashley Estell was buried and bought a plot for himself as close as he could get to her grave. He's been dead at least 10 years, according to court documents that didn't make it clear whether he was actually buried in the plot he purchased. ... Blair, now 38, was convicted in 1994 of strangling and molesting Ashley in suburban Dallas.

Blair is serving three consecutive life sentences for child sexual assaults he actually committed and to which he confessed. He maintained his innocence regarding Ashley. [more ...]

Blair was convicted largely on the strength of since-discredited testimony about hair and fibers found in his car, on a stuffed animal and on the girl's body that all allegedly matched, court records show. At the time of the slaying, Blair was on parole after serving only 18 months of a 10-year sentence for burglary and indecency with a child.

Subsequent testing was performed on male DNA found on the Plano girl's shoes and shirt, as well as on tissue taken from the victim's fingernails and hair. All of these DNA tests excluded Blair as the contributor, court records show.

Suspect No. 4 resembles Blair. He kept a scrapbook about Ashley's case, joined her church "and moved into an apartment near her school and her parents' home." DNA testing did not exclude him as the source of DNA found on Ashley's shoe.

Given Blair's history, he was an easy target for a wrongful conviction. The high profile case made him a good candidate for the death penalty. He's lucky DNA evidence was available in his case. Think of all the people on Death Rows across the country convicted of crimes that did not involve DNA evidence. If any of them were wrongly convicted, they might not be so lucky as to escape a wrongful death.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).