State Senator Robin Webb is set to bring a bill to Kentucky legislators in 2015 to ensure biological evidence in murder cases is preserved indefinitely.
Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person in the U.S. exonerated from death row by DNA testing, says while doing more to protect this evidence will help; it’s no guarantee against executing an innocent person. Bloodsworth, who recently toured Kentucky to share his story, says improving safeguards would help – but he believes the best solution is to make life without parole the maximum sentence. “It’s too many people who’ve been found innocent on death row in the United States and we need to stop it right now”
Bloodsworth was convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1985. After serving almost nine years in a Maryland prison, two years on death row – D-N-A fingerprinting confirmed he was innocent. The real killer plead guilty ten years after Bloodsworth was freed. “And the most chilling thing about it, he slept in the same prison with me in the tier below me for five years and never said a word”
Bloodsworth was given 300-thousand dollars from the state of Maryland for his wrongful conviction. That amounts to three dollars 70 cents for every hour he spent behind bars. A documentary about his case will be released this spring.