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Indiana governor grants 60-day stay of execution for condemned manProsecutors joined defense in asking for DNA testing
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (CNN) -- Indiana's governor on Monday delayed this week's scheduled execution of a death row inmate so DNA tests can be performed to determine if it was the victims' blood on his clothing. "I hereby grant a 60-day stay of execution to Darnell Williams in order that he may obtain DNA testing of certain blood evidence," said a statement released by Gov. Frank O'Bannon's office.. Williams, 37, was scheduled to be executed Friday for the 1986 robbery and murder of an elderly Gary, Ind., couple, John and Henrietta Rease. Last week, a federal judge rejected William's request for the DNA test, saying he had no jurisdiction to order the test. The governor made it clear the test could not exonerate Williams in the case. "I am granting this stay to permit all potentially relevant evidence to be discovered. The Indiana Supreme Court and the federal courts have determined that Williams has no legal rights to the DNA testing, primarily because there is so much other evidence linking Williams to the murders," O'Bannon's statement said. Jurors said their decision to send Williams to death row was based largely on two drops of blood on his pants that allegedly indicated he shot the couple. At the time, DNA testing was not available. "They did conventional serology testing," said Barry Scheck, law professor and founder of the Innocence Project, which had offered to pay for the testing. "They arrested him, found no blood on his pants. They gave him his clothes back. He went to jail. Three days later, they got his pants and found three drops of blood consistent with both victims. Tom Vanes, the prosecutor, told jurors, 'This shows he's the trigger man,'" Scheck said. But he wasn't the shooter, said Williams' attorney, Juliet Yackel. Had the jurors heard key evidence indicating Williams was seen running from the house at the time of the shooting, they would not have sentenced him to death, she said. The governor's statement said an independent lab would perform the DNA tests "to ensure the integrity of the evidence." Earlier Monday, the state's state parole board met and was planning to vote on whether to recommend that the governor order DNA testing of the evidence. O'Bannon, however, contacted the board and asked members not to vote, officials said. Instead, he said, he would make an announcement on the issue himself. Williams' supporters now include Vanes and three of the jurors, Scheck said. Though accomplices are eligible for the death penalty under Indiana law, Yackel noted that others in the case were spared execution, and argued that Williams should be spared, too. "The jurors in this case say, if he wasn't the trigger man, they would not have wanted to vote for death," she said. "That's the real question here. Is he the kind of person we want to execute?" Scheck said Williams had no felony record. CNN Chicago Bureau Chief Jeff Flock contributed to this report.
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