After 3 decades on SC death row, man might go free

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A mentally disabled man who spent nearly 30 years on South Carolina’s death row is getting a bail hearing because of a single strand of hair.

The hair does not exonerate Edward Lee Elmore in the stabbing death of a widow he worked for. But it has raised enough doubt to win him a new trial and a bail hearing Friday. The chance to leave prison after three decades comes after numerous appeals and his sentence being overturned three times.

Elmore was convicted of killing Dorothy Edwards in 1982. Her body was found in a closet in her home, stabbed 52 times. She had numerous broken ribs, head wounds and internal injuries.

At the bond hearing, Elmore faces murder and sexual assault charges.