South Carolina Man Requests Post-Conviction DNA Testing

Lawyers for a South Carolina man who was convicted in 1982 of the murder of Bessie Kate Alexander, an elderly woman from western York County, South Carolina, have requested DNA testing on crime scene evidence saying that there are similarities between the murder of which their client was convicted and two other murders of elderly woman around the same time in the same area.

 

The

Herald

reported that William “Johnny” Hullett’s attorneys at the

Wisconsin Innocence Project

think the same person committed all three murders and that DNA could point toward a yet to be discovered serial killer.

 

University of Wisconsin law professor Byron Lichstein is the lead attorney on the case. He wants evidence slides from the three murders and said that if results reveal Hullet’s DNA, he would drop the appeal.

 

Even if Hullett’s DNA is not found on evidence connected to Alexander’s murder, Sixth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said that would not mean he didn’t kill her. ”What they are looking for is someone else’s DNA, and then they can say, ‘Aha! This must be the real killer,’ ”Bracket said to the

Herald

.

 

To date, 314 people have been exonerated by DNA evidence.

 

Lichstein told the

Herald

, “Do the testing and address what the results show. . . . DNA testing has proven innocence. We can’t just stick our heads in the sand and pretend they don’t exist.”

 

Read the

full article

.