Clueless Coulter # 1

Professional lunatic Ann Coulter spreads her special brand of idiocy during a televised discussion regarding the death penalty, wrongful convictions and the possible executions of innocent men. (Originally broadcast on MSNBC)

In these clips from an MSNBC broadcast, Coulter and others discuss the evidence used to convict Joe O'Dell and his subsequent execution. O'Dell's attorneys attempted to stay O'Dell's execution until new DNA tests could be conducted. O'Dell was convicted of the rape and murder of a former lover, and the rape charge served as an aggravated circumstance that justified the imposition of the death penalty sentence. Since his arrest, O'Dell had maintained that he was innocent and he believed that the tests could prove that his semen was not present at the crime scene or in the body of the victim. Despite the fact that the DNA evidence was available for testing, the prosecutors and state of Virginia fought the efforts of O'Dell's attorneys and refused to permit the testing before O'Dell's execution. After O'Dell was executed, the state still refused to permit the DNA tests that may have refuted the prosecution's account of the crime.

Other evidence in the case proved questionable, such as the pellet gun allegedly owned by O'Dell and used to bludgeon the victim. At trial, an expert testified for the state that the wounds on the victim were consistent with the barrel of O'Dell's pellet gun. Investigators had linked the gun to O'Dell through his former girlfriend, who suddenly remembered that O'Dell had owned such a gun and was asked to go to a local store to find the same kind of weapon. She returned with the only pellet gun available at a local store and this gun was then associated with O'Dell. No evidence existed that O'Dell had ever owned such a weapon and the former girlfriend later admitted that the barrel of the gun - the part linked to the victim's wounds by the state's expert - was different from the barrel of the gun she had seen in O'Dell's possession. If the girlfriend was correct, the gun presented at trial was not similar to the one O'Dell had allegedly owned or the murder weapon, and the testimony of the expert was useless and perhaps suspect.

Frustrated by his lawyers, O'Dell had chosen to represent himself during his trial, a move that clearly cost O'Dell dearly. On appeal, O'Dell's new attorneys asked the court to address this and other issues and grant a new trial, but these appeals were denied. O'Dell was executed, despite the fact that the evidence used to convict him remained in serious doubt and the DNA reported to belong to the killer had never been compared to O'Dell's. While the debate regarding O'Dell's guilt was important, the fact that DNA could have been used to determine his guilt with certainty before execution was the central issue.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ann
• Coulter
• death
• penalty
• wrongful
• conviction
• execution
• Joe
• O'Dell
• Michael
• Butterfield