New DNA tests OK'd in 1982 Atlanta murder cases (AP/CNN) [View All]

[eppur_se_muova]

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- State lawyers have agreed to allow DNA testing of dog hair that was used to convict Wayne Williams, who has been blamed for the murders of two dozen children and young men in the late 1970s and early '80s.

Williams was convicted in 1982 of murdering Nathaniel Cater, 27, and Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Afterward, officials declared Williams responsible for 22 other deaths and those cases were closed.

The decision Monday to allow DNA testing came in a response to a filing as part of Williams' efforts to appeal his conviction and life sentence.

But while saying they had no objections to the testing, state lawyers also said it "would not change the results of this trial. Defendant cannot show that DNA tests, no matter what the results, would create a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been different at the time of trial."

Williams' lawyer, Jack Martin, asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to allow DNA tests on dog and human hair and blood that might help win Williams a new trial.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/30/atlanta.child.killings.ap/index.html