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

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

The hair does not exonerate Edward Lee Elmore in the stabbing death of a widow for whom he worked. But it has raised enough doubt to win a new trial and a bail hearing today. 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 her home in Greenwood County in 1982. Her body was found in a closet, stabbed 52 times. She had numerous broken ribs, head wounds and internal injuries.

At today’s bond hearing, Elmore faces murder and sexual assault charges.