A deeply divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 8-7 that the execution of Tennessee death row inmate Paul Gregory House may move forward despite the fact that nearly half of the judges believe he is not guilty and should be freed immediately. “We are faced with a real-life murder mystery, an authentic ‘who-done-it’ where the wrong man may be executed,” wrote dissenting judge Ronald Lee Gilman. A N.Y. Times article noted that although courts are often closely divided on legal issues, rarely are they split on the basic question of guilt or innocence in a death penalty case.

Recent retesting of DNA evidence in the case found that semen originally thought to have come from House, who was convicted of raping and murdering Carolyn Muncey in 1985, actually came from Muncey’s husband, Hubert. At a recent federal District Court hearing to determine whether to allow House’s case to be reopened based on the new DNA evidence, witnesses testified that Hubert Muncey was an alcoholic who frequently beat his wife and who later confessed to killing her while drunk. While the majority of the Court of Appeals was willing to let the execution go forwared, six dissenting judges strongly disagreed, noting, “Without any evidence of rape, the state has lost its motive, its theory of the case and the aggravating circumstance on which the state and the jury relied for his death verdict. There is no reasonable basis for disbelieving the six witnesses who now incriminate Mr. Muncey as the perpetrator of the crime. House has shown that it is highly probable that he is completely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. House should be immediately released.” The 8-7 ruling means that unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes or Mr. House dies first from the multiple sclerosis he has, he will be executed. (New York Times, October 7, 2004) See Innocence.