Missouri moving ahead with execution plans despite concerns about evidence

It does seem that someone who stabbed someone more than 50 times would get more than three small blood stains on his clothes.

https://news.yahoo.com/missouri-moving-ahead-execution-plans-195342469.html


Missouri is moving ahead with plans to execute a man next week, despite new concerns about key evidence that led to his conviction, and despite concerns about the coronavirus that prompted other states to postpone lethal injections.

•••••

Walter Barton, 64, is scheduled to die by injection Tuesday for killing 81-year-old trailer park operator Gladys Kuehler in 1991. She was beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times in the town of Ozark, near Springfield. The execution would be the first in the U.S. since March 5.

Three jurors involved in Barton's 2006 trial now express misgivings, based on new blood spatter evidence, Barton’s attorney, Fred Duchardt Jr., said Wednesday. The NAACP and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty submitted more than 5,000 petition signatures Wednesday to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, urging him to grant clemency.

•••••

Key to Barton's conviction was blood that was found on his clothing. Duchardt said the blood got there after Barton and others found Kuehler dead.

A blood spatter expert retained by Barton's defense team concluded that the assailant would have had far more blood on his clothing. Duchardt said three jurors recently signed affidavits calling the new evidence “compelling” and saying it would have affected their deliberations. The jury foreman said, based on the evidence, he would have been “uncomfortable” recommending the death penalty.

Duchardt said he is trying to reach the other surviving jurors, but the coronavirus shutdown has slowed that effort and created other logistical issues. For example, with public buildings closed, members of Barton's defense team interviewed two jurors in a parking lot, he said.

•••••

Barton often spent time at the mobile home park that Kuehler operated. He was with her granddaughter and a neighbor on the evening of Oct. 9, 1991, when they found her dead in her bedroom.

Police noticed what appeared to be blood stains on Barton’s clothing, and DNA tests confirmed it was Kuehler's. Barton said the stains must have occurred when he pulled Kuehler’s granddaughter away from the body. The granddaughter first confirmed that account, but testified that Barton never came into the bedroom. A blood spatter expert at Barton’s trial said the three small stains likely resulted from the “impact” of the knife.

In new court filings, Duchardt cited the findings of Lawrence Renner, who examined Barton’s clothing and boots. Renner concluded the killer would have had far more bloodstains.

•••••