Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 29, 1993 TAG: 9306290232
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: JESSUP, MD. LENGTH: Medium
With his hand raised in a clenched fist to cheers from a handful of supporters, Bloodsworth, 32, walked through the gate at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup at 12:45 p.m., accompanied by his father, fiancee and attorneys.
"I'm going home," he told reporters. "Nobody can ever make up for the loss of nine years."
Bloodsworth said newly developed scientific comparisons of genetic material in semen found on the victim's underwear and in samples of his own blood "proved me 100 percent innocent" in the 1984 murder and sexual assault, for which he was twice convicted and at one point sentenced to death.
The test, called a PCR DNA amplification procedure, was not available as an investigative tool in 1984 or at Bloodsworth's second trial, in 1987.
Weeping briefly Monday, Bloodsworth said, "I've been labeled a monster [and] I've lost so much," including his mother, who died while he was in prison.
Three hours earlier, in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson, State's Attorney Sandra A. O'Connor formally moved to dismiss the charges against Bloodsworth and said the genetic test results meant there was "insufficient evidence" to mount a new trial.
She said that if investigators had had the DNA test available to them in 1984 or 1987, "we would not have charged him. We would have continued the investigation."
With the charges against Bloodsworth dismissed, O'Connor said there is still an "ongoing investigation" of the case. But she said that "there are no suspects at this time."
The victim, Dawn Hamilton, was found raped and bludgeoned with a rock near her home in Rosedale in suburban Baltimore on July 24, 1984.
Bloodsworth, who lived nearby at the time, was arrested after a man told police he recognized Bloodsworth from a composite sketch of the suspect published in local newspapers.
The sketch was based on reports by five witnesses, who placed Bloodsworth with the victim or in the Rosedale vicinity. Bloodsworth was arrested later in Cambridge on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Prosecutors said Bloodsworth told an acquaintance in Cambridge that he had "done something terrible" and could not return to Baltimore.
At his first trial, alibi witnesses testified that he was at home or with other people during most of the day of the killing. Bloodsworth testified that the "terrible" thing was a reference to neglecting his wife, from whom he is now separated.
Bloodsworth was convicted in 1985 of murder, rape and sexual assault, and sentenced to death.
A year later, the death sentence was overturned and a new trial ordered by the Maryland Court of Appeals because, it said, police had failed to tell Bloodsworth's attorneys at the time about another suspect in the case.
Bloodsworth was convicted by a second jury in 1987 and sentenced to three consecutive life terms.
At his news conference Monday, Bloodsworth said he has no immediate plans except to go home to Cambridge with his father, Curtis, and marry his fiancee, Anita Gunther.
"The real killer is still out there," he said. "The case won't be over until he is behind bars."
by CNB