Kirk Noble Bloodsworth was sentenced to death for a 1984 rape-murder he didn’t commit. It took nine years for DNA to exonerate him, and another decade for it to link another man to the crime. Mr. Bloodsworth is one of a small but disturbing number of innocent people who were released from death row after being wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted and wrongfully sentenced to die. Had DNA testing not been available, he might be dead today.
In 1984, Kirk, an ex-Marine with no criminal history, was arrested for the brutal rape and murder of a 9 year-old girl. The nightmare began after one of his neighbors thought Kirk looked like the man in the composite sketch he had seen on TV. The man described was over 6 feet tall, thin and blond. Kirk didn’t come close to that description. He believes prosecutors were so determined to solve the case that they refused to listen to the truth. In 1985, Kirk listened in horror as he was sentenced to death.
Robert E. Morin, the attorney who got Bloodsworth tested, said the DNA results made believers out of people who ignored Bloodsworth’s assertions of innocence for nine years. "Kirk, from the moment he was arrested to the time he was released, said he did not do it, he didn’t know who did. Nobody believed him. Friday afternoon we got the results of the DNA tests. Monday morning he was out of prison — and everybody believed him," said Morin, now an associate judge on the District of Columbia Superior Court. "The scary thing is what if we hadn’t gotten those DNA tests? He’d still be in prison saying he is innocent."
In 2003, a Baltimore County forensic biologist linked the crime to another man, Kimberly Ruffner, who had occupied a cell directly above Mr. Bloodsworth. Kimberly Ruffner was already serving a sentence for another rape.
Today, Mr. Bloodsworth is a Program Officer for The Justice Project’s Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform and the Criminal Justice Reform Education Fund, and he has been an ardent supporter of the Innocence Protection Act (IPA) since its introduction in Congress in February 2000. The IPA would establish the “Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program,” a program that will help states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing.
Bloodsworth has spoken about the terrible injustices of the capital punishment system on numerous television shows, including Oprah, and his story has been featured in national publications, including the New York Times Magazine .
The dramatic story of Bloodsworth’s 20-year journey is chronicled in the recently published book by Tim Junkin, Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA .
Mr. Bloodsworth will be on campus on Thursday, March 10 to tell his story. Please come to Bannan 142 at 12 pm. Lunch will be served.
(Tim Junkin authored a book based on Mr. Bloodworth’s life and came to our campus last semester. Those who purchased the book can now come and get it signed by Mr. Bloodsworth himself!)
