IN THE ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT
DAMIEN WAYNE ECHOLS Defendant,
STATE OF ARKANSAS, Plaintiff.
Case No. CR 94-928
Case No. CR 99-1060
Craighead Co. Circuit Court Nos 93-450, 450A
DEFENDANT ECHOLS
SECOND STATUS REPORT RE: DNA TESTING
DENNIS P. RIORDAN
(CA SBN 69320)
DONALD M. HORGAN
(CA SBN 121547)
523 Octavia Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Telephone: (415) 431-3472
DEBORAH R. SALLINGS
(AR SBN 80127)
Cauley Bowman Carney & Williams
11001 Executive Center Drive, Ste. 200
Little Rock, AR 72211
Telephone: (501) 312-8500
(Local Counsel)
Attorneys for Defendant DAMIEN WAYNE ECHOLS
In response to this Court’s letter of June 27, 2007, counsel for Petitioner/Defendant Damien Echols provides the following report on the status of DNA testing being conducted in support of his motion for relief under 16-112-201, which motion is now pending in the Craighead County Circuit Court.
(1) The extensive DNA testing which was the subject of an initial agreement by the parties and which was embodied in the Circuit Court’s First Amended DNA Order for DNA Testing filed on February 23, 2005 has essentially been completed. Such testing has been conducted at Bode Laboratories in Virginia.
(2) The DNA testing results returned to date disclose that none of the genetic material recovered at the scene of the crimes was attributable to Mr. Echols, Echols co-defendant, Jason Baldwin, or defendant Jessie Misskelley (Arkansas v. Misskelley [CR 94-848]).
(3) Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants. Counsel for Petitioners/Defendants Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley, and Craighead County Prosecuting Attorney Brent Davis have entered into discussions concerning how best to determine the evidentiary significance of the laboratory’s results returned in the initial round of testing. These discussions have resulted in a recent agreement to subject certain critical evidentiary items to more extensive testing in light of their potential significance to establishing the identity of the perpetrator(s) of the offenses. In addition, the parties are presently discussing whether, in light of the current test results, a limited number of other items impounded during the investigation should be subjected to testing by Bode. We will inform the Court within sixty days of the outcome of those discussions.
Counsel for Echols is, of course, prepared to provide the Court with any further information it should request concerning this matter.
DATED: July 17, 2007
Respectfully submitted,
DENNIS P. RIORDAN
DONALD M. HORGAN
DEBORAH R. SALLINGS
By DENNIS P. RIORDAN
Attorneys for Defendant DAMIEN WAYNE ECHOLS
