“font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;”>Four months ago, a team of lawyers tried to prove the innocence of George Allen, 55, a man convicted of a 1982 murder and rape, by presenting new evidence to a “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;”>court.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On Friday, the lawyers submitted an amended petition to the Cole County Circuit Court with further evidence that calls into question Allen’s conviction 30 years ago, including lab findings that were never turned over to Allen’s attorney.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In Allen’s trial, prosecutors produced no physical evidence or eye witnesses that connected Allen with the stabbing of Mary Bell, 31, in her apartment in the LaSalle Park neighborhood on Feb. 4, 1982.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The new uncovered evidence shows that Allen could not have been the source of the semen found at the scene, the petition states.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Allen’s advocates hope the new evidence will persuade Attorney General Chris Koster to move quickly to release him, said Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, which has been working on Allen’s case in collaboration with Bryan Cave LLP.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office told The St. Louis American, “We are in the process of reviewing the case.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Since Allen’s original petition was filed on Sept. 26, 2011, his lawyers and Koster’s office conducted further investigations into Allen’s case.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Every single piece of evidence unearthed during the past four months either confirms or further proves that police withheld critical, exculpatory evidence and that Mr. Allen is innocent,” the Feb. 17 petition states.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In the original petition, attorneys established, through DNA evidence and previously undisclosed serology testing, the presence of semen on the robe that the victim was wearing when she was attacked that didn’t match the DNA of Allen or of the victim’s known sexual partners. According to scratched out markings on a report from the analyst who performed the serology, the semen came from a donor with B antigens. Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Since that filing, attorneys deposed the St. Louis Police Crime Lab serologoist Joseph Crow about the scratched out marking. He claimed to have no independent recollection of the testing, but after reviewing the documents, he said that he believes he obtained what he referred to as a “weak” reaction for B antigens on the robe, wrote the B antigen finding on this worksheet, but later decided to delete the finding before the final lab report was typed up.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>An affidavit filed Friday from a nationally recognized serology expert confirms that Crow was obligated to report the results and turn them over to the defense even if they were, as he claimed, “weak” results. The expert said the test Crow was using does not allow for false positives, so even a weak result means the B antigen is present.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>George Allen’s blood type excluded him as the source of the B antigen.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Moreover, Crow has now admitted that he cannot rule out the fact that he may have known George Allen was excluded by the B antigen before he decided to cross out the finding. “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;”>Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Unreliable confession “font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;”>Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In papers filed Friday, attorneys also point to new evidence that the police investigating the crime were concerned about the reliability of Allen’s confession.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Although police were looking for another person when they arrested Allen, they decided to interrogate him anyway. Allen, who is a diagnosed schizophrenic and had been admitted to psychiatric wards several times, eventually ended up making a recorded confession. On the recording, Allen informs the officers that he is under the influence of alcohol. Throughout the interrogation, the officer prompts Allen to give him answers to fit the crime, often asking Allen to change his answer to do so.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Attorneys recently deposed Detective Ron Scaggs, one of the detectives involved in the interrogation. When asked whether he recalled questions being raised within the department about whether or not this was a good conviction, he admitted that “we were iffy about it.”Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He also confirmed that there were problems with the way the interrogation was conducted and agreed that it “was not the way that [he was] trained to do interrogations.” He agreed that Detective Herb Riley, the head investigator on the case, asked “leading questions” and that this “runs the risk that you would be inadvertently suggesting to a suspect how to answer a question.”Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He also agreed that it was problematic to have shown Allen photos during the interrogation because “you may be inadvertently feeding information that you, the investigator, would prefer to get from the suspect himself to make sure that you’re getting reliable information that only the police and prosecutor would know.”Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He acknowledged that several of Allen’s incorrect claims about the crime were “red flags” that Allen’s confession may not be reliable.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Additionally, the diagram Allen drew of the crime scene was inaccurate and never turned over to defense, as required by law.Â
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Mr. Allen’s mother has been waiting for justice for a very long time,” said Olga Akselrod, Innocence Project staff attorney. “Hopefully the evidence uncovered in today’s filing will finally end this terrible injustice.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>A copy of the Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus that was filed Friday in the Circuit Court of Cole County is available at:Â
“http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Legal_Documents_from_Allen_v_Dormire.php”> http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Legal_Documents_from_Allen_v_Dormire.php
