OKLAHOMA

May 12, 2005

6:00 p.m. CST

The state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute George James Miller, a black man, via lethal injection for the Sept. 1994 murder of Kent Dodd in Oklahoma County.

On Sept. 17, 1994, Dodd, a hotel employee, was viciously attacked by a  perpetrator.  Police arriving to the scene of the crime found Dodd clinging to life.  He had been stabbed multiple times, severely beaten, and burned with acid.  Before he died, Dodd managed to inform the officers that his assailant was “a black man in grey pants.”  Although Dodd knew Miller, albeit by the alias of Jay Elkins, Dodd never mentioned any variation of the name Jay Elkins while communicating with the officers.

While the death penalty is never an acceptable form of punishment, its potential use in this case is particularly alarming because of Miller’s strong claim of innocence.  The case built against him was entirely based on relatively weak circumstantial evidence and an improbable theory about blood smears found near Dodd’s body.

At trial, the “strongest” evidence of Miller’s guilt offered by the prosecution was a bloody footprint found at the scene of the crime and a microscopic drop of blood found on a sandal that belonged to Miller.  A forensic scientist called by the State was only able to conclude that Miller’s sandals could have produced the print.  And while the blood found on Miller’s sandal did possess a resemblance to Dodd’s blood, the state was unable to definitively conclude that it belonged to Dodd.  The State’s expert testified that “it could have come from 1 in 19 Caucasians, 1 in 16 African-Americans or 1 in 55 Hispanics.”

Due to the weak circumstantial evidence relied upon by the prosecution, it is possible that the conviction was secured during the prosecution’s closing argument, in which the absurd contention was made that Dodd had attempted to identify Miller as his assailant by using blood to smear the word “Jay” on a nearby door.  Because the prosecution presented this theory in its closing argument, the defense was unable to offer a rebuttal.  Had they been able to rebut the theory, the defense could have shown the jury that the blood smears in question were half way up the door, and, therefore, it was highly improbable that an immobilized Dodd produced them.  The defense could have also shown that no traces of blood were found on Dodd’s fingers or under his fingernails.

Miller’s claims of innocence should not go ignored.  To date, 9 men have been exonerated from Oklahoma’s death row and a total of 119 men have been exonerated from death rows nationwide since 1973.

Faced with strong doubt regarding Miller’s guilt, the state of Oklahoma should not impose upon him an irreversible punishment like the death penalty.  There is simply no just remedy for a wrongful execution. 

Please contact Gov. Brad Henry and urge him to err on the side of caution by halting the execution of this potentially innocent man.