Kirk Noble Bloodsworth (born October 31, 1960) is a former Maryland
waterman and the first American sentenced to
death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
to be exonerated post-conviction by
DNA testing.
He had been wrongfully convicted in 1985 of the 1984 rape and first-degree murder of a nine-year-old girl in
Rosedale, Maryland
Rosedale is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 19,257 at the 2010 United States Census.
History
The origin of the name Rosedale is ...
. By the time an appeal based on the DNA evidence was underway, his sentence had been commuted to two consecutive life sentences. He gained release from prison in 1993 and a full exoneration in 1993.
Wrongful Conviction and sentence to death
Bloodsworth served in the Marines, and was honorably discharged at the end of his term. He lived in coastal Maryland, where he worked as a waterman, harvesting shellfish and fish. In 1985 he was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault, rape, and first-degree premeditated
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
in the 1984 case of Dawn Hamilton, a nine-year-old girl in
Rosedale, Maryland
Rosedale is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 19,257 at the 2010 United States Census.
History
The origin of the name Rosedale is ...
.
Five eyewitnesses stated that he had been with the victim, but he continued to maintain his innocence throughout his trial and subsequent incarceration.
Two of the witnesses had not been able to identify Bloodsworth during the lineup but in fact saw him on television after the crime was committed.
In 1992, while in jail, Bloodsworth read an account of how
DNA testing
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
had led to the conviction, in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, of
Colin Pitchfork
Colin Pitchfork (born March 23, 1960) is a British double child-murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages, the first in Nar ...
in the killings of Dawn Ashworth and Lynda Mann. This resulted in the use of DNA to gain the exoneration of an earlier suspect in the case, who had falsely confessed to Ashworth's murder. Hoping to prove his innocence, Bloodsworth pushed to have the biological evidence against him tested by this new forensic technique.
Initially, the available evidence in the case — traces of semen in the victim's underwear — was thought to have been destroyed; however, it was eventually located in a paper bag in the judge's chambers. Testing proved that the semen did not match Bloodsworth's DNA profile. In 1993 Bloodsworth was released after more than nine years in prison.
In 1993, the Maryland Governor, William Donald Schaefer, granted Bloodsworth a full pardon.
In 2003, nearly a decade after Bloodsworth's release, prisoner DNA evidence added to state and federal databases resulted in a match to the real killer, Kimberly Shay Ruffner. A month after the 1984 murder, Ruffner had been sentenced to 45 years for an unrelated burglary, attempted rape and assault with intent to murder. He had been incarcerated in a cell one floor below Bloodsworth's own cell. In a 2009 guest lecture at
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Florida, Dania Beach, Davie, Florida, Davie, Fort Lauderd ...
, Bloodsworth said that he and Ruffner sometimes spotted each other during workouts.
In light of the new DNA evidence, Ruffner was charged in Maryland for the rape and murder of the girl; in 2004 he pleaded guilty to the 1984 murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Life after prison
Bloodsworth served as a program officer for The Justice Project. He helped gain support for the
Innocence Protection Act (IPA) of 2001, later included in the
omnibus
Omnibus may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Omnibus'' (film)
* Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes
* ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme
* ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational progr ...
Justice for All Act of 2004. Among other federal funding initiatives, the IPA established the "Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program," intended to help states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing. Bloodsworth has served as a consultant on the death penalty and a prominent public speaker against it. He helped gain repeal of the death penalty statute in Maryland.
Representation in other media
*Bloodsworth is the subject of the documentary ''Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man'' (2015), directed by Gregory Bayne.
* The Bloodsworth case is a three-part series on YouTube's ''Murder with Friends'' (2018), a popular Web Series.
Further reading
*''Bloodsworth: the True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA'' (2005) by Tim Junkin.
See also
*
List of exonerated death row inmates
This list contains names of people who were found guilty of capital crimes and placed on death row but later found to be wrongly convicted. Many of these exonerees' sentences were overturned by acquittal or pardon, but some of those listed were ...
*
List of wrongful convictions in the United States
This list of wrongful convictions in the United States includes people who have been legally exonerated, including people whose convictions have been overturned or vacated, and who have not been retried because the charges were dismissed by the s ...
References
External links
2014 Interview with BloodsworthCNN profile of Kirk Bloodsworth"Kirk Bloodsworth" at the Innocence Project2009 interview with Bloodsworth BBC
''Bloodsworth: An Innocent Man'' (2015) book official website
2018 Murder with Friends YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloodsworth, Kirk
Living people
American Roman Catholics
Converts to Roman Catholicism
Overturned convictions in the United States
United States Marines
1960 births
Prisoners sentenced to death by Maryland
Place of birth missing (living people)
People acquitted of murder
People wrongfully convicted of murder
People wrongfully convicted of rape
Roman Catholic activists
Activists from Maryland
American prisoners sentenced to death