A special local judge has denied a motion to reopen the case of a convicted killer sentenced to die for the 1983 slaying of a St. Elmo woman.
Edward Jerome Harbison had argued in February that newly discovered evidence in 2007 establishing the fact police did not have a proper arrest warrant before detaining him was grounds for a new trial.
All his other appeals in state appellate courts had been denied in 1996.
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood denied Mr. Harbison’s last-ditch appeal in a written opinion this week, agreeing with previous decisions that the defendant has no valid arguments.
Specifically, Judge Blackwood said the affidavit of complaint, a sworn document that generally describes a crime and lists suspects, “has always supported the absence of any arrest warrant.”
The opinion supported prosecutors’ arguments at the February hearing. Hamilton County Executive Assistant District Attorney Neal Pinkston said the absence of an arrest warrant would not have affected the outcome of Mr. Harbison’s trial.
Mr. Harbison confessed to killing victim Edith Russell. Police say she walked in on Mr. Harbison and an accomplice as they were ransacking her home. Mr. Harbison panicked, they said, and crushed her head in with a marble vase.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.