Retrial 30 years after 'murder'

A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina's death row could soon leave prison because of a hair.

The hair does not exonerate Edward Lee Elmore, a handyman, in the stabbing death of a widow for whom he worked. But it has raised enough doubt for a new trial – and a bail hearing yesterday.

In 1982, Elmore was convicted of killing Dorothy Edwards. Her body had been stabbed 52 times.

But in 2010, an appeals court heard arguments about a hair found on Ms Edwards that did not match hers or Elmore's. The judges overturned his conviction in November, ruling that investigators failed to follow standard procedures in collecting hairs.

AP