Lawyer for convicted killer of Ethel Kidd makes appeal request
Jason...@virgin.net
Daily Progress 11/03/99 (Virginia)
By PATRICK HICKERSON
Daily Progress staff writer
MADISON — A lawyer for the convicted murderer of an Orange County woman
is contending that his client was wrongfully convicted after the trial
judge excluded key evidence and experts.
Madison attorney Roy D. Bradley, who represents 53-year-old Edward
Wayne Beverly, submitted a 31-page brief to the Virginia Court of
Appeals on Wednesday, complete with a 297-page appendix. The brief
argues the Orange circuit judge made five improper decisions on
experts and evidence during Beverly’s trial.
Bradley concludes by asking the appeals court to grant his client a new
trial.
An Orange County Circuit Court jury convicted Beverly a year ago this
month for killing 62-year-old Ethel Kidd nearly a decade ago.
Kidd was reported missing April 13, 1989. Her body was found seven days
later by a hunter. The body was lashed to a tree with drapery cord
around her hands and ankles.
She had been sodomized and strangled. Beverly is appealing rulings made
by the judge that allowed the Orange County prosecutor to file a notice
of plans to introduce DNA evidence in fewer than the required 21 days
before the trial.
The opening brief also calls into question the judge’s rulings allowing
DNA evidence but excluding blood typing information taken from the same
blood sample. Beverly’s lawyer also took issue with the judge’s denial
of his indigent client’s request for fingerprint and handwriting
experts.
“It’s a fairly complex case,” Bradley said. “I can’t recall one that has
this brouhaha over DNA evidence.”
An expert called by the Orange County prosecutor compared the Beverly
sample to the DNA from a semen sample taken from Kidd’s body. The expert
concluded there was only a one in 1.7 million chance that Beverly was
not the one who assaulted her.
One problem that calls into question the comparison, according to
Bradley, is that the sample had a blood type of “A,” but Beverly’s blood
type is “O.”
“Our position is to throw the whole thing out or keep it all in,”
Bradley said.
Beverly became a suspect in January 1997 after the Orange County
Sheriff’s Office began a nationwide search for the killer. The slaying
and the investigation attracted widespread attention, including a
presentation in August 1996 on the NBC television program “Unsolved
Mysteries.”
Beverly’s sister, Marsha Williams, said she could identify the
handwriting on a note found near the victim’s house as her brother’s.
The judge denied a defense request to have a handwriting expert evaluate
the note. He also denied a request to hire a fingerprint expert to
evaluate prints found on the note, which included Beverly’s.
“I don’t think it could be any clearer that he needs experts in these
areas to help him in his defense,” Bradley said. Wednesday’s brief came
40 days after the Court of Appeals granted a hearing on five questions
raised by the defense. There is no date set yet for the hearing. Before
the case is argued before the Court of Appeals, the Virginia Attorney
General’s Office will have to respond by early April followed by a
possible rebuttal brief by the defense.
David Botkins, spokesman for Attorney General Mark L. Earley, said that
as of Wednesday the office had not received a copy of the brief but
anticipated filing a timely reply.
“We will be vigorously defending the commonwealth’s position,” Botkins
said.