I was driving this morning to an appointment, listening to an interview on National Public Radio of a horror story…with a good ending, and a couple of interesting synchros to boot.
It’s the story about Kirk Noble Bloodsworth, 53, the first American sentenced to death row, who was exonerated by DNA evidence. Bloodsworth spent eight years in prison, two of them on death row after falsely being convicted of sexual assault, rape and premeditated first-degree murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1985. At the time of his arrest, Bloodsworth, a former Marine with an honorable discharge, had never been arrested.
Even though five eyewitnesses had placed him with the victim, he continued to maintain his innocence throughout his trial and subsequent incarceration. In 1992, while in jail, Bloodsworth read an account of how DNA fingerprinting had led to the conviction of Colin Pitchfork in the killings of Dawn Ashworth and Lynda Mann. Hoping to prove his innocence, he pushed to have the evidence against him tested by the then-novel method.
Initially, it was thought that DNA evidence- traces of semen in the victim’s underwear – had been destroyed. However, Bloodsworth kept pursuing the issue and finally the evidence was located in a paper bag in the judge’s chambers. Testing proved that the semen didn’t match Bloodsworth’s DNA. He was released from prison in 1993.
Bloodsworth was on the radio today in the aftermath of the State of Maryland’s decision to abolish the death penalty, the eighth state to do so. Bloodsworth’s case was cited as a major impetus for abolishing the law.
When asked in the NPR interviewer about his thoughts on the justice system, Bloodsworth said that initially he was confident he would be found not guilty because he didn’t do it. He gave his alibi, but five witnesses proceeded to misidentify him as the perpetrator. He also said it was his pursuit of justice that eventually set him free, not the workings of the justice system.
He told a story of his attorney coming to visit him in jail while he was on trial. They sat in chairs facing each other with a glass partition between them. Behind the lawyer was a brick wall. Bloodsworth recalls the lawyer saying: “You’re in a heap of trouble Kirk, but I’ll do all I can to help you.”
The lawyer finished the conversation repeating, “I’ll do all I can to help you.” He then placed his hand on the glass in front of Kirk, in lieu of a handshake. “Then he stood up, turned, and walked right into the brick wall,” Bloodsworth recalls.
That turned out to be a fitting symbol, a synchronicity for the conviction that was to follow. Another synchro is his name. DNA from his blood proved he was innocent and freed him. Bloodsworth, indeed. A book (pictured above) called BLOODSWORTH was written about his case.
Today, Bloodsworth is a program officer for the Justice Project, and he has been an ardent supporter of the Innocence Protection Act (IPA) since its introduction in Congress in February 2000. The IPA establishes the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, a program that will help states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing.
Though released from prison, Bloodsworth was not formally exonerated. In 2003, nearly a decade after his release, prison DNA evidence added to state and federal databases identified the real killer, Kimberly Shay Ruffner. A month after the 1984 murder, Ruffner had been sentenced to 45 years for an unrelated burglary, attempted rape and assault with intent to murder, and ironically had been incarcerated in a cell one floor below Bloodsworth’s own cell. In 2004 Ruffner pled guilty to the 1984 murder.
Here is another synchro.
A guy I once knew (Andrew Fitzherbert) for a few years when I was young was the first person to be convicted of murder on DNA evidence alone in the Australian state of Queensland.
https://brizdazz.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/speaking-about-fishy-things-and.html
I met him at the Brisbane branch of the Theosophical Society in Brisbane when I used to be a member of their library and borrowed books and tapes off them.
He was a librarian there.I once even went to his house to have my palm read.
I used to attend the church next door (The Liberal Catholic Church)
https://www.libcat.org.au/
as I was,and still am,a member of that church…although I haven’t attended a service there for about 21 years,mainly because of work and family commitments.
The last time I remember was when I had my son Kevin baptized there.
After that,work and family life and my wife’s aversion to any religion made it near impossible for me to attend Sunday services…which I very much enjoyed.
Anyway,after my first son was born my life revolved around family and work,and I drifted away from the church and the library,so I lost contact with Andrew.
I was shocked a few years later when Andrew made the headlines as a vicious murderer and I like a lot of people thought well the law must have good reason to have charged him,so he must have done it.
For years all I could think about was how I was alone for an hour with him in his house and he was convicted of stabbing a woman 50 times and leaving her to die.
But I had nagging doubts about all this,because the Andrew I knew may have been a little eccentric,but he never seemed to be someone who could do this crime,it didn’t make any sense at all to me on a gut level.
Then I read this book called “Five Drops of Blood” and it all became very clear to me what happened and who did it.
https://www.bookworm.com.au/Book/Five-Drops-of-Blood-Murder-in-the-Cat-Protection-Society-9781741106527.aspx
Read the book for yourself and it’s becomes pretty clear who did it and why,and she got away with it,and Andrew is still behind bars for a crime that I’m more than sure he didn’t commit.All because of a balls up involving DNA evidence.
So this case is almost the opposite to Bloodsworth’s case in many ways.
I often think of Andrew sitting in a cell for a crime I’m sure he didn’t commit.
Sometimes in life,there is no justice and I wonder how many people never get exonerated for the crimes they didn’t commit,and I wonder if Andrew ever will ?
I probably should have included this link in the above comment
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/dna-case-questioned/story-e6frfkp9-1111114106631
I just took a look at those links. Wow, very strange.
Very bizarre. . DNA frees one man, and convicts an innocent man. We’ll check out those links.
Here is another article about Andrew’s case called
“DNA: not a magic bullet”,which argues the about infallibility of DNA evidence by itself –
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/perspective/dna-not-a-magic-bullet/3201002
Too many stories like this. They’ve proven so often that witness testimony can be tough. That is why they try to get descriptions immediately after.
I think DNA testing should be mandatory.
It’s rather spooky that his name is Bloodsworth. “Worth your blood” shiver.
Mandatory DNA testing would be a good start.
absolutely – mandatory…
That’s some story. So, he still hasn’t been exonerated? That doesn’t make sense!
It’s pathetic, really.
more than pathetic…i’m not familiar with maryland criminal law but i cannot fathom why he would not have been formally exonerated – i mean, i don’t understand his release from prison unless and until the formal process of exoneration – but…
and the synchro of his name…and the one thing that freed him – but my most favorite part is the brick wall! great story!
Yes, up against wall…of justice.
How is it possible that he was not exonerated? You go to jail and serve time when you are innocent, how can that be that he wasn’t cleared of all charges? This was very interesting, thinking of how confident he was that he would be fine, and then… the synchro of the brick wall is very fitting.