[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 130 (Monday, September 22, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11751-S11752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MR. KIRK BLOODSWORTH

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a man, Kirk 
Noble Bloodsworth, who was the victim of a grossly imperfect system. I 
first met Kirk Bloodsworth in 2000 when he came to me as a man who had 
been exonerated after almost 9 years of wrongful imprisonment. I am 
proud to say that we have become close friends and partners in the 
fight to reform capital punishment in America.
  For 8 years, 11 months and 19 days, Kirk Bloodsworth served time in 
prison as an innocent man. And for the next 10 years, Mr. Bloodsworth 
lived in a jail without bars. He lived in a world where people 
questioned his innocence, where rumors followed him everywhere he went, 
and where he was unable to find stable employment.
  On July 25, 1984, 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton was brutally raped and 
murdered. Fifteen days later, Kirk Bloodsworth was arrested based on 
the testimony of several witnesses who said they had seen him near the 
spot where they found Miss Hamilton. There was no physical evidence 
linking Mr. Bloodsworth to the crime.
  In March, 1985, Mr. Bloodsworth, a former Marine with no criminal 
background, was convicted and sentenced to death in Maryland. He was 24 
years old. Subsequently, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned Mr. 
Bloodsworth's conviction. However, a second jury trial found him 
guilty, and sentenced him to two consecutive life terms. In 1992, at 
the request of Mr. Bloodsworth and his attorney, the evidence from his 
trial--Miss Hamilton's shirt and underpants--was tested for DNA. By 
June 1993, two DNA fingerprinting tests--one conducted by the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation and one conducted by Forensic Science 
Associates concluded that Mr. Bloodsworth's DNA was not the same as DNA 
found on Miss Hamilton's underpants.
  On June 28, 1993, Mr. Bloodsworth was released from prison; in 
December, 1993, Maryland Governor William Schaefer pardoned him; and in 
June, 1994, the State of Maryland awarded him $300,000 in compensation.
  The wheels of justice broke down in this case, but we cannot pretend 
that what happened to Kirk Bloodsworth was an exceptional occurrence. 
Mr. Bloodsworth's nightmare of wrongful conviction has been repeated 
again and again across the country. To date, 111 individuals convicted 
and sentenced to death have been released from death row with evidence 
of their innocence, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
  Today Mr. Bloodsworth is outspoken about the importance of making 
post-conviction DNA testing available to defendants with a credible 
claim of innocence, something I have fought hard to accomplish as part 
of the Innocence Protection Act. People of good conscience can and will 
disagree on the morality of the death penalty. But we can all agree 
that a system that sentences innocent persons to death has no place in 
a civilized society, much less in 21st century America.
  While DNA testing freed Mr. Bloodsworth from prison in 1993, the test 
results did not convince everyone that Kirk Bloodsworth was not guilty. 
Prosecutors refused to lift the veil of suspicion over him, in effect 
saying that the DNA tests might be sufficient to undermine his 
conviction, but not to prove his innocence. Mr. Bloodsworth told the 
Baltimore Sun that he spent years asking the county to run the DNA 
found on Dawn Hamilton's clothing through the State DNA database. 
Finally, last week, the State ran the DNA evidence through its database 
and the black cloud that had followed Mr. Bloodsworth for 10 years was 
lifted.
  On September 5, 2003, Mr. Bloodsworth was told that the State tests 
implicated Mr. Kimberly Shay Ruffner, a convicted sex offender, as the 
rapist and murderer of Dawn Hamilton. Mr. Ruffner has now been charged 
with first-degree murder. The prosecutor who previously refused to 
acknowledge Mr. Bloodsworth's innocence went to his home to apologize 
to him.
  I know that I am joined by many others when I say that I am delighted 
that Mr. Bloodsworth can finally feel truly free. His fight to prove 
his own innocence has been won. I am certain that he will continue with 
his efforts to fix the broken machinery of capital punishment in 
America and especially to assist others who experienced wrongful 
conviction.
  I ask unanimous consent that a Baltimore Sun article detailing the 
recent events in Mr. Bloodsworth's case be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Baltimore Sun, Sept. 6, 2003]

  DNA That Freed Man Leads to New Suspect; Killing: Kirk Bloodsworth, 
Convicted and Then Cleared in the Rape-Murder of a Child, Learns a Man 
              he Knew in Prison is Charged With the Crimes

                          (By Stephanie Hanes)

       The same DNA evidence that freed Kirk Bloodsworth from 
     prison 10 years ago has now implicated another man in the 
     1984 rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton of Rosedale, 
     quashing any lingering questions about Bloodsworth's 
     involvement in the crime.
       Kimberly Shay Ruffner, a 45-year-old convicted sex offender 
     who went to prison for an attempted rape and attempted murder 
     in Fells Point only weeks after Dawn Hamilton was killed, was 
     charged yesterday with first-degree murder.
       The Baltimore County state's attorney's office--which has 
     never publicly acknowledged Bloodsworth's innocence--
     announced the development, and a prosecutor apologized to 
     Bloodsworth in person.
       ``Even though I was cleared, there were so many people who 
     didn't believe me,'' said Bloodsworth, 42, who was reached at 
     his home in Cambridge. ``This is the proof everyone needs.''
       Ruffner is still in prison for the Fells Point attack, with 
     a release date of 2020. Baltimore County State's Attorney 
     Sandra A. O'Connor said prosecutors will seek the death 
     penalty in Dawn's killing.
       ``This was a horrendous rape-murder of a 9-year-old girl,'' 
     O'Connor said. ``Whether or not he is incarcerated, he will 
     be held accountable.''
       While Bloodsworth's supporters said they were delighted 
     with the outcome, they criticized Baltimore County law 
     enforcement officials for not testing the DNA earlier.
       In June, The Sun wrote that the DNA in Bloodsworth's case 
     had not been compared to the state's DNA database of 
     convicted felons. As a convicted sex offender, Ruffner's DNA 
     would have been in the state's database as early as 1994.
       Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey said the 
     comparison was made last month.
       ``I can't tell you how pleased I am for Kirk,but what 
     happened here today should have happened earlier,'' said 
     Barry C. Scheck, the co-founder of the New York-based 
     Innocence Project, which tries to free the wrongly 
     convicted.

[[Page S11752]]

                            delay in testing

       Scheck, who helped exonerate Bloodsworth, said he has been 
     asking for this sort of testing for years. It was after 
     Scheck's most recent letter to the Baltimore County State's 
     Attorney's Office that police and prosecutors started moving 
     toward testing the DNA against the database, The Sun reported 
     in June.
       Yesterday morning, Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann 
     Brobst, who prosecuted Bloodsworth and who had been 
     criticized by his supporters for refusing to admit his 
     innocence, went to Bloodsworth's home to tell him the news.
       ``She apologized up and down,'' Bloodsworth said yesterday. 
     ``She had to eat a lot of crow to come. You've got to give 
     her something for it.''
       O'Connor said Dawn's father, Thomas Hamilton, was also told 
     of the new arrest. He was unavailable for comment.


                          death row, then life

       Bloodsworth was convicted of Dawn's murder in 1985 and sent 
     to death row. Multiple witnesses had testified that they saw 
     him near the crime scene.
       The next year, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned his 
     conviction. But when Bloodsworth was retried, he was again 
     found guilty and this time sentenced to life in prison.
       In 1992, prosecutors agreed to run DNA tests on a semen 
     stain found on Dawn's underwear--a stain that law enforcement 
     officials said they had not noticed earlier. Those tests 
     showed that Bloodsworth was not the person who had sexually 
     assaulted the little girl.
       Prosecutors agreed to release Bloodsworth immediately but 
     would not apologize or say he was innocent.
       ``I believe that he is not guilty,'' O'Connor said at the 
     time. ``I'm not prepared to say he's innocent. Only the 
     people who were there know what happened.''


                            Lingering doubts

       Bloodsworth was pardoned by former Gov. William Donald 
     Schaefer and given $300,000 from the state. But life after 
     prison was a struggle, one that he now talks about openly.
       At first, he had trouble holding jobs and grappled with 
     freedom after nine years behind bars. He heard the derogatory 
     whispers and saw the dirty looks. He once wiped the scrawled 
     words ``Child Killer'' off his car.
       ``He has confided to me many, many times that people echo 
     what Ann Brobst kept saying: (The DNA) doesn't mean he's 
     innocent,'' Scheck said.
       In recent years, Bloodsworth married and started working as 
     a consultant for the Justice Project, a Washington advocacy 
     group for justice reform. He has testified for lawmakers and 
     spoken in classrooms across the country about the importance 
     of DNA evidence.
       In his own case, he said he has pushed for years for county 
     law enforcement to run the preserved DNA evidence through the 
     state's database.
       A month after Dawn Hamilton was killed, Kimberly Ruffner 
     was arrested for the Fells Point attack.
       He had broken into a woman's house Aug. 28, 1984, and had 
     tried to rape her, police said. When she struggled, he tried 
     to kill her with a pair of scissors. The woman managed to 
     escape, and police found Ruffner hours later.
       He was tried and convicted of breaking and entering, 
     assault with intent to murder and attempted rape, said Mark 
     Vernarelli, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public 
     Safety and Correctional Services. He was sentenced to 45 
     years in prison.
       According to court records, Ruffner had been charged with 
     two other sex offenses in 1983.
       In the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup, Ruffner 
     slept on the tier below Bloodsworth in the same building.
       The two men lifted weights together, and Bloodsworth, who 
     worked in the prison library, would give him books, 
     Bloodsworth said. They both had red hair. But Bloodsworth 
     said they were nothing more than acquaintances.
       Not once, Bloodsworth said, did Ruffner indicate that he 
     was responsible for Dawn's murder.
       ``It's spooky,'' Bloodsworth said. ``The whole time he was 
     there. I just can't get over it.''


                             case timeline

       July 1984--The body of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton is found in 
     a wooded area near the Fontana Village apartments in 
     Rosedale, Baltimore County.
       August 1984--Police arrest and charge Kirk Noble 
     Bloodsworth, a former waterman from Cambridge, in Dawn 
     Hamilton's death.
       Also, Kimberly Shay Ruffner is arrested on charges of 
     breaking and entering, assault with intent to murder and 
     attempted rape after attacking a Fells Point woman with a 
     pair of scissors.
       March 1985--A jury convicts Bloodsworth of Dawn Hamilton's 
     murder. Baltimore County Judge J. William Hinkel sentences 
     Bloodsworth to death.
       July 185--Ruffner is convicted on charges in the Fells 
     Point attack and is sentenced to 45 years in prison.
       July 1986--The Maryland Court of Appeals overturns 
     Bloodsworth's conviction, saying prosecutors withheld 
     evidence about another suspect.
       April 1987--A second jury convicts Bloodsworth of murder. 
     He is sentenced to two consecutive life terms--one for sexual 
     assault and the other for murder.
       April 1992--At the request of Bloodsworth's attorney, 
     Baltimore County prosecutors agree to release evidence from 
     Bloodsworth's trial--panties, a shirt and a stick--for DNA 
     testing.
       May 1993--A California DNA lab reports that a semen stain 
     on the victim's panties cannot have come from Bloodsworth.
       June 25, 1993--The FBI, conducting its own test, agrees the 
     semen found on the panties could not have come from 
     Bloodsworth.
       June 28, 1993--Bloodsworth walks out of the House of 
     Correction in Jessup, a free man.
       December 1993--Gov. William Donald Schaefer pardons 
     Bloodsworth.
       June 22, 1994--Bloodsworth is awarded $300,000 by the state 
     of Maryland for nine years of wrongful imprisonment.
       Sept. 5, 2003--Baltimore County Assistant State's Attorney 
     S. Ann Brobst, who prosecuted Bloodsworth, visits him at his 
     Cambridge home and tells him further DNA tests matched the 
     semen found in Dawn Hamilton's panties to Ruffner, a Maryland 
     prison inmate.
       She also apologizes.

                          ____________________