Doubts about the appro­pri­ate­ness of a death sen­tence have prompt­ed for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Thomas Vanes to call for new DNA test­ing in the case of Darnell Williams, a man he sent to death row as a Lake County, Indiana state’s attor­ney. Williams is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on Friday, August 1. Vanes and John Gnajek, a mem­ber of the jury that sent Williams to death row, have filed a suit in fed­er­al court ask­ing for a stay of Williams’ exe­cu­tion until new DNA test­ing is com­plet­ed on blood evi­dence that played a cru­cial role in the case. Jurors in the case have stat­ed that if it had not been for the blood found on Williams’ cloth­ing, which sug­gest­ed that he was present dur­ing the shoot­ings, they would not have sent him to death row. Testing would deter­mine whether the blood was from the vic­tims or anoth­er source. ​“People were try­ing to deter­mine whether he was the actu­al shoot­er,” said Gnajek. ​“The blood on his shorts seemed to indi­cate that. Without it, I could­n’t have vot­ed for the death penal­ty.” Williams could use the new DNA evi­dence to seek exec­u­tive clemen­cy from Governor Frank O’Bannon. The state attor­ney gen­er­al has stat­ed that he does not oppose the new tests if the gov­er­nor requests them for the clemen­cy review. (New York Times, July 24, 2003) See New Voices and Innocence.

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