Kirk Bloodsworth Letter to Congress
Dear Member of Congress,
After spending 20 years of my life fighting to clear my name, it is hard to believe that this nightmare is finally over. Since 1984, when I was falsely convicted of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton in Baltimore County, I have been fighting to prove my innocence. Even after I was exonerated in 1993, a cloud of doubt still followed me around everywhere I went. Some thought I had gotten away with murder.
Last fall, the DNA testing that had exonerated me 10 years earlier was run against the Maryland state database, and a positive DNA match identified another man as the perpetrator of the crime. The cloud began to lift.
And finally, on Thursday, May 20, 2004, Kimberly Shay Ruffner pleaded guilty to the murder of Dawn Hamilton in Baltimore County Court. Of course, I feel some relief that my ordeal is finally over. But I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering Dawn Hamilton’s family has had to go through since July 25, 1984, the day of Dawn’s death. As they have for 20 years, Dawn and her family remain in my thoughts and prayers.
I spent nine years of my life in prison, two of them on death row, for a crime I did not commit. And I am dedicated to making sure this never happens to anyone else. I will continue my quest to find solutions to our broken and flawed criminal justice system—the system that failed Dawn, the Hamilton family and me. It was broken the day she died, and it is still broken today.
And so today, after a 20-year struggle, I write to ask you to urge your Senate colleagues to move a piece of legislation currently awaiting action in the Senate, the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act (H.R. 3214/S. 1700). As you probably know, this critical legislation is the product of a bi-partisan, bicameral compromise led by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner and Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch. It overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 357 to 67 last fall and currently has 36 Senate cosponsors. The Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act will provide much needed funds to test the DNA backlog and ensure access to post-conviction DNA testing for those people like me in prison or on death row for crimes they did not commit. But it also provides states with money to improve capital prosecution and defense systems. We must get capital trials right the first time.
No one—not victims nor the falsely accused—should have to wait 20 years for justice. The power of DNA technology, both to identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent, cannot be overestimated. I ask you to urge your Senate colleagues to take advantage of this opportunity to work towards justice in a bipartisan way.
Respectfully yours,
Kirk Noble Bloodsworth
