Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 15, 1995 TAG: 9506150035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Private investigators for Joseph R. O'Dell III, 49, on Monday posted a public appeal for him on the World Wide Web, part of the global network of interconnected computers known as the Internet.
The ``home page'' features a color photo of O'Dell and claims that evidence clearing him of the 1985 murder of a Virginia Beach secretary is so strong that his supporters were willing to debate prosecutors on national television.
O'Dell was convicted in 1986 of killing 44-year-old Helen C. Schartner. Prosecutors used circumstantial evidence to link O'Dell to the Feb. 5, 1985, murder. A Virginia Beach Circuit Court jury sentenced O'Dell to death.
In September 1994, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer in Richmond overturned O'Dell's death sentence and ordered a new sentencing. Spencer ruled that O'Dell's rights were violated because the jury was never told O'Dell would not have been eligible for parole if he received a life sentence.
O'Dell is in the Mecklenburg Correctional Center inmate awaiting a new sentencing date.
The private investigators wrote in their on-line argument that later DNA tests proved that the blood found on O'Dell's clothing by state forensics experts did not come from Schartner. O'Dell maintains the blood came from an unrelated barroom brawl. DNA testing was not available at the time of O'Dell's trial.
``Due to the rule of law in Virginia ...evidence discovered after 21 days cannot be used to prove the innocence of a convicted person,'' explains investigator Lauri Urs. ``The same laboratory, the same witnesses, who testified to the DNA testing that sent serial killer Timothy Spencer to the electric chair in Virginia, testified in the O'Dell case that the blood used to convict O'Dell did not come from the murder victim.''
Spencer was the first person convicted in Virginia solely on the basis of DNA evidence. Spencer was convicted several years after O'Dell.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Albert Alberi said the Internet plea is ``just more of the same thing that went on during the trial.
``We were personally attacked,'' Alberi said. ``He (O'Dell) is dangerous - one of the most dangerous people I've met. Anyone who says he isn't is quite naive.''
Alberi disputed the interpretation of the new DNA tests, which O'Dell's supporters say prove his innocence.
``Anyone who says (the tests) exonerate O'Dell hasn't seen the report,'' Alberi said. ``According to this test, there was 3-probe DNA match between Schartner's blood and the bloodstains on (O'Dell's) blue jacket.''
Other evidence used to bolster O'Dell's plea include a lack of physical evidence; evidence found at the scene - cigarettes, footprints and tire tracks - not matching O'Dell's personal effects; and an alleged confession to Schartner's murder by double murderer David Pruett, who was executed in December 1993.
This is not the first time a condemned man has pleaded his innocence over the Internet. Girvies Davis, a condemned man in Illinois, used the Internet in April to make a plea for public sympathy. The ``clemency page'' said Davis was innocent, and counted down the days to his May 17 execution.
It featured a photo of Davies and a synopsis of his case. Davis' plea prompted 1,200 e-mail messages. Davis' execution took place as ordered.
Joseph Roger O'Dell's page address on the World Wide Web is: http://www.gbiz.com/odell/
by CNB