Post by Anja Nieser on Oct 1, 2006 6:46:22 GMT -5
Test links inmate to murder----Defense attorney disputes DNA analysis in
1984 case
Death-row inmate Anthony Apanovitch has proclaimed for more than 2 decades
that he's innocent of the 1984 rape and murder of Mary Ann Flynn.
Now, prosecutors say, there's even more proof of his guilt - enough to
remove any doubt that Apanovitch killed Flynn at her West Side home.
An independent California laboratory's new analysis of DNA from
long-stored biological evidence removed from the 33-year-old victim's body
shows conclusively that the sample came from Apanovitch's body, Cuyahoga
County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Thursday.
How conclusively? The analysis, Mason's office says, shows that only 1
person out of every 140 million could be matched to the crime-scene semen
specimen.
"He has the right to say he's innocent," Mason said. "But we have the
right to prove he's not. And we feel that what we've done here proves he's
a liar as well as a murderer."
One of Apanovitch's lawyers said the test proves nothing reliably because
the tested evidence and the state's handling of it over the years are both
tainted.
The testing lab could only analyze a fragment of DNA, rather than a full
genetic blueprint, said federal Public Defender Dale Baich.
Moreover, what was tested had been mixed with DNA from at least 3 other
people - possibly another killer, or perhaps investigators who mishandled
the sample that even prosecutors have acknowledged had been lost for
years.
"Their statement about conclusively proving is a gross overstatement,"
said Baich, a former Clevelander now in Phoenix.
Even if the test did prove what Mason says it does, Baich added, it should
have no bearing on Apanovitch's ongoing legal appeals.
The current case before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati contends prosecutors unconstitutionally withheld evidence
favorable to the defense at Apanovitch's 1984 trial. There's no legally
justifiable place in the process for those appeals judges to look at new
DNA evidence favorable to the state, Baich argued Thursday.
If Apanovitch wins a new trial, Baich said, prosecutors could present the
new DNA results to a jury.
The last jury found Apanovitch, then 29, raped, beat and strangled Flynn
at her Archwood Avenue home, which she had hired him to paint. Witnesses
testified he intimidated and lusted after her, coaxed friends to fabricate
alibis, and he gave police conflicting statements.
He became a minor cause celebr among death-penalty foes with his repeated
declarations of innocence. Among his complaints: Earlier, cruder DNA
analysis couldn't conclusively link him to the attack.
But Apanovitch had steadfastly refused to give a DNA sample for comparison
to evidence until a 2003 law made it compulsory for all convicts.
Martin Flynn of Shaker Heights is one of the victim's seven siblings. The
family, he said, would never want an innocent man punished, but now that's
even more improbable.
"Based on what I have heard," he said, "it does not appear that the wrong
guy got convicted."
(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
1984 case
Death-row inmate Anthony Apanovitch has proclaimed for more than 2 decades
that he's innocent of the 1984 rape and murder of Mary Ann Flynn.
Now, prosecutors say, there's even more proof of his guilt - enough to
remove any doubt that Apanovitch killed Flynn at her West Side home.
An independent California laboratory's new analysis of DNA from
long-stored biological evidence removed from the 33-year-old victim's body
shows conclusively that the sample came from Apanovitch's body, Cuyahoga
County Prosecutor Bill Mason said Thursday.
How conclusively? The analysis, Mason's office says, shows that only 1
person out of every 140 million could be matched to the crime-scene semen
specimen.
"He has the right to say he's innocent," Mason said. "But we have the
right to prove he's not. And we feel that what we've done here proves he's
a liar as well as a murderer."
One of Apanovitch's lawyers said the test proves nothing reliably because
the tested evidence and the state's handling of it over the years are both
tainted.
The testing lab could only analyze a fragment of DNA, rather than a full
genetic blueprint, said federal Public Defender Dale Baich.
Moreover, what was tested had been mixed with DNA from at least 3 other
people - possibly another killer, or perhaps investigators who mishandled
the sample that even prosecutors have acknowledged had been lost for
years.
"Their statement about conclusively proving is a gross overstatement,"
said Baich, a former Clevelander now in Phoenix.
Even if the test did prove what Mason says it does, Baich added, it should
have no bearing on Apanovitch's ongoing legal appeals.
The current case before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati contends prosecutors unconstitutionally withheld evidence
favorable to the defense at Apanovitch's 1984 trial. There's no legally
justifiable place in the process for those appeals judges to look at new
DNA evidence favorable to the state, Baich argued Thursday.
If Apanovitch wins a new trial, Baich said, prosecutors could present the
new DNA results to a jury.
The last jury found Apanovitch, then 29, raped, beat and strangled Flynn
at her Archwood Avenue home, which she had hired him to paint. Witnesses
testified he intimidated and lusted after her, coaxed friends to fabricate
alibis, and he gave police conflicting statements.
He became a minor cause celebr among death-penalty foes with his repeated
declarations of innocence. Among his complaints: Earlier, cruder DNA
analysis couldn't conclusively link him to the attack.
But Apanovitch had steadfastly refused to give a DNA sample for comparison
to evidence until a 2003 law made it compulsory for all convicts.
Martin Flynn of Shaker Heights is one of the victim's seven siblings. The
family, he said, would never want an innocent man punished, but now that's
even more improbable.
"Based on what I have heard," he said, "it does not appear that the wrong
guy got convicted."
(source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)