LIMA — A Lima man presently serving a life sentence for the 1999 stabbing loss of life of an Elida girl has gained the help of a nationwide human rights group in his try to achieve both his exoneration or on the very least a brand new trial.
Cory E. Holland, of Lima, was convicted in November 1999 of aggravated homicide and aggravated theft within the loss of life of Dorothy Miller, of Elida, who was fatally stabbed in April 1999 throughout a theft try at House Service Laundry Dry Cleaners & Carpet Cleaners on West Market Avenue, the place she was normal supervisor.
Holland is serving a life sentence at Allen Correctional Establishment.
Earlier this yr, the group The Innocence Challenge gave its help to Holland’s request for brand spanking new DNA testing.
A standing convention involving events concerned within the case was held Tuesday in Allen County Widespread Pleas Court docket. Choose Jeffrey Reed presided over the listening to after Choose Terri Kohlrieser was referred to as out of city as a consequence of a household emergency.
In a movement searching for post-conviction DNA testing filed in January, attorneys for The Innocence Challenge sought an order for a brand new examination and comparability of unidentified fingerprints recovered from the crime scene and different proof within the case. The doc claims that “fashionable DNA testing has the capability to supply dispositive scientific proof that each identifies the true assassin and exonerates Holland.”
The Innocence Challenge has agreed to pay all prices related to such testing.
Attorneys for Holland declare new proof has come to gentle “which each undermines the state’s proof of Mr. Holland’s guilt and implicates a violent felon named Willie T. Amos within the homicide.”
The doc alleges that three of the informants who testified towards Holland have since recanted their testimony — together with “two of which have indicated in sworn statements that they had been pressured by police to implicate Holland.”
Amos, a violent felon who was arrested within the space of the crime scene after operating from police solely minutes after the homicide, has since admitted his accountability for the crime, the doc alleges. He’s presently serving time in Indiana for a theft conviction in Fort Wayne.
Throughout Tuesday’s listening to, Legal professional Bryce Benjet of The Innocence Challenge stated negotiations are ongoing with the state of Ohio to find out what proof nonetheless exists from the 20-year-old homicide.
Benjet stated it’s his group’s intent to “take the proof that exists and ship it to a lab to see if organic proof is on it. This is step one within the course of.”
He inspired the Allen County Prosecutor’s Workplace, represented Tuesday by Assistant Prosecuting Legal professional Jana Emrick, to “revisit its determination to oppose the DNA testing.”
A dozen or extra of Holland’s relations and buddies had been in attendance at Tuesday’s listening to.
Learn a PDF of the court docket submitting by The Innocence Challenge.
Attorneys from the nationwide human rights group The Innocence Challenge, left, appeared in Allen County Widespread Pleas Court docket on Tuesday for a listening to searching for a brand new spherical of DNA testing of proof within the 20-year-old homicide case of Lima resident Cory Holland.
Holland
The Innocence Challenge presses for recent evaluation of Holland’s homicide case
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