"THE HIGH COURT'S 4-2 MAJORITY DECISION, WHICH WAS ANNOUNCED TUESDAY MORNING, DOES NOT GRANT PRADE'S REQUEST FOR NEW DNA TESTS.
IT SENDS THE CASE BACK TO SUMMIT COUNTY COMMON PLEAS COURT TO DECIDE THE ISSUE OF WHETHER A NEW TESTING METHOD COULD DETECT INFORMATION THAT A PRIOR DNA TEST COULD NOT."
REPORTER ED MEYER: AKRON BEACON JOURNAL;
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BACKGROUND: In one of Akron's most notorious murders, Prade's former wife, Dr. Margo Prade, 41, was found by her medical assistant slumped behind the wheel of her van in her office parking lot on Wooster Avenue on the morning before Thanksgiving in 1997. Autopsy findings revealed she was shot six times. After a lengthy trial, Douglas Prade was convicted in September 1998 of all charges in his indictment: aggravated murder, six counts of wiretapping and one count of possession of criminal tools. Common Pleas Judge Mary Spicer, now retired, sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 26 years. Prade, now 64, is serving his sentence at Marion Correctional Institution. The issue addressed by the high court involved a bite mark the killer apparently made on Dr. Prade's left arm — through her lab coat and blouse — as she was attempting to defend herself inside the van moments before the shooting. Although DNA tests were performed on that evidence in preparation for the 1998 trial, only Dr. Prade's DNA profile was found. Profuse bleeding on the doctor's lab coat had overwhelmed any traces of DNA that might have been embedded in the bite mark by the perpetrator. In December, Douglas Prade's attorney, David B. Alden, argued before the high court that DNA technology now can detect a small amount of male DNA, even if it is mixed in with vast amounts of female DNA. If another person's DNA is found inside the bite mark, Alden said, a reasonable conclusion would be that Douglas Prade was not the killer. (Akron Beacon Journal)
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"In a partial victory for former Akron Police Capt. Douglas Prade, the Ohio Supreme Court has sent his case back to Summit County to determine whether new DNA testing of forensic evidence from his 1998 murder trial could exclude him as the killer," reporter Ed Meyer's story published earlier today in the Akron Beacon Journal under the heading, "High court sends Prade DNA case back to Summit County," begins.
"The high court's 4-2 majority decision, which was announced Tuesday morning, does not grant Prade's request for new DNA tests," the story continues.
"It sends the case back to Summit County Common Pleas Court to decide the issue of whether a new testing method could detect information that a prior DNA test could not.
In one of Akron's most notorious murders, Prade's former wife, Dr. Margo Prade, 41, was found by her medical assistant slumped behind the wheel of her van in her office parking lot on Wooster Avenue on the morning before Thanksgiving in 1997.
Autopsy findings revealed she was shot six times.
After a lengthy trial, Douglas Prade was convicted in September 1998 of all charges in his indictment: aggravated murder, six counts of wiretapping and one count of possession of criminal tools.
Common Pleas Judge Mary Spicer, now retired, sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 26 years.
Prade, now 64, is serving his sentence at Marion Correctional Institution.
The issue addressed by the high court involved a bite mark the killer apparently made on Dr. Prade's left arm — through her lab coat and blouse — as she was attempting to defend herself inside the van moments before the shooting.
Although DNA tests were performed on that evidence in preparation for the 1998 trial, only Dr. Prade's DNA profile was found. Profuse bleeding on the doctor's lab coat had overwhelmed any traces of DNA that might have been embedded in the bite mark by the perpetrator.
In December, Douglas Prade's attorney, David B. Alden, argued before the high court that DNA technology now can detect a small amount of male DNA, even if it is mixed in with vast amounts of female DNA.
If another person's DNA is found inside the bite mark, Alden said, a reasonable conclusion would be that Douglas Prade was not the killer.
The high court's majority decision, written by Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, noted that ''the victim's DNA overwhelmed the killer's DNA due to the limitations of the 1998 testing methods. Therefore, the exclusion [of Douglas Prade] was meaningless, and the tests cannot be deemed to have been definitive.''
Brad Gessner, head of the criminal division of the Summit County Prosecutor's Office, declined to comment on whether the agency will continue to oppose new state-funded DNA tests in the Prade case.
Gessner said the high court's ruling puts the onus on Prade to prove that such tests are needed.
''Doug Prade will now have to prove how this [new test] would have changed the decision of his jury. From the investigation,'' Gessner said, ''this was not a clean lab coat.
''It's unknown how long it had been since it had been laundered. Anyone who touched, hugged, brushed against her lab coat or came in contact with Dr. Margo Prade, when she met her patients or did her rounds, is likely to have left skin-cell DNA.''
The high court ruling reversed prior decisions by the trial court and Akron's 9th District Court of Appeals that the 1998 test performed on the lab coat was definitive.
Justice Maureen O'Connor, who was the Summit County prosecutor at the time of the murder, recused herself from hearing the case in December.
O'Connor was replaced by Judge Patricia A. Delaney, who sits on the 5th District Court of Appeals in Canton.
The April 2 death of Chief Justice Thomas Moyer put the Prade ruling in the hands of six justices instead of the full seven-member court.
The story can be found at:
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/92783649.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
