Could DNA Clear Convicted Serial Killer? Prosecutors Oppose Billy Glaze Retrial

Could DNA Clear Convicted Serial Killer? Prosecutors Oppose Retrial

Lawyers for a convicted serial killer say DNA evidence proves he's not guilty of killing three women in the 1980s. Prosecutors, however, seek to deny him a retrial.

Hennepin County prosecutors filed a petition Friday arguing that the DNA evidence offered by defense lawyers actually doesn't clear 71-year-old Billy Glaze of the mutilation of three Native American women in 1986 and 1987.

The DNA in question, collected from two of the three Minneapolis murders, points to a convicted rapist, according to Glaze's lawyers from the Innocence Project of Minnesota. From one of the victims, investigators collected semen that was recently matched to a rapist already in prison.

The unnamed inmate's genetic material also matched with DNA found on a cigarette butt at another scene, Glaze's lawyer say. His lawyers also contend that Glaze's DNA doesn't match any evidence from the crimes.

County prosecutors argue that the findings don't explain when and how the DNA was deposited at the two crime scenes, according to TV station KARE. They also argue that the DNA does not necessarily match only the rapist; the DNA could be from his relatives, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

On technical grounds, the prosecutor's office also wrote that Glaze missed a 2007 deadline to appeal for DNA testing.

In 1989, Glaze was convicted of first- and second-degree murder of Kathy Bullman, 19, Angeline Whitebird-Sweet, 26, and Angela Green, 21. Their nude or partially naked and bludgeoned bodies were found between June 1986 and April 1987. They were arranged in similar positions suggesting that a serial killer was on the loose.

Glaze confessed to the slayings, but his lawyers say they were made falsely.

Glaze's lawyers told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that they were disappointed with the petition.

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