Glen Chapman: Convict: Facts Witheld

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The Charlotte Observer
January 30, 2004

N.C. JUDGE TO REVIEW TRIAL, ORDERS DNA TESTING
ATTORNEY GENERAL: 1994 CONVICTION VALID IN DOUBLE MURDER

Author: KERRY HALL, Staff Writer

Prosecutors withheld evidence that might have raised doubts about the guilt of a Hickory man sent to death row for killing two women, according to his appeal.

Glen Edward Chapman was convicted for the 1992 murders after a trial tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, an incompetent defense by two alcohol-abusing lawyers and a juror who slept through essential parts of testimony, the appeal says.

Now, a judge has ordered new DNA tests to see whether they show who may have been at the crime scenes. Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin will also examine the misconduct and incompetence claims in a hearing expected in February or March.

The Chapman case shows why the state needs to halt executions and study the death penalty system, says Ken Rose, who heads the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham . "Although no one sets out to convict an innocent person, there are mistakes made."

The N.C. Attorney General's Office defends the 1994 conviction as "legal, valid and proper," but declined to discuss the case. In court papers, lawyers argue that Chapman's claims are without merit or should have been raised in earlier appeals.

Since 1977, when North Carolina reinstated the death penalty, more than half of all death sentences were thrown out because of flawed trials, according to an Observer investigation and other studies published in 2000 and 2001. As many as a quarter of those originally sentenced to die wound up with lighter sentences - and two people were freed after new trials.

Chapman's allegations come as N.C. lawmakers consider halting the death penalty to study whether it's administered fairly. The N.C. Senate approved a moratorium last year, the first Southern legislative body to do so. The N.C. House declined to vote but may take up the issue this spring.

Chapman's appeal alleges more than a dozen errors were made by his trial lawyers. The appeal also argues that prosecutors withheld a witness statement showing one victim was alive more than 12 hours after prosecutors say she was with Chapman. At trial, prosecutors argued Chapman was the last person seen with the victim when she was alive.

Last month, Judge Ervin ordered DNA testing of hair, cigarette butts and other evidence to look for a link to others who may have been involved in the murders.

Bodies discovered

In August 1992, the bodies of Betty Jean Ramseur, 31, and Tenene Conley, 28, were discovered within a week of one another, both left in vacant houses a quarter of a mile apart in southeast Hickory.

Chapman, a 25-year-old house painter, was charged with killing Ramseur and Conley, who were prostitutes, according to the defense appeal. Chapman admits he knew them, and that he'd smoked crack with both women. He also testified in court he had sex with Conley before midnight Aug. 13 - more than 1 1/2 days before her body was discovered. But he denies killing either of the women.

No eyewitnesses linked Chapman to the crime. The only physical evidence was his sperm in Conley's body.

Prosecutors argued Chapman killed both women in separate drug-induced rages.

Three witnesses - two of Chapman's cousins and a 14-year-old boy - told jurors Chapman confessed or talked about killing Betty Jean Ramseur. But two of those witnesses have since recanted, saying in court documents they lied because they were afraid of police and prosecutors. The third witness, Nicole Cline, now says in an affidavit she believes Chapman was high on drugs and joking when he told her he'd killed Ramseur.

"If anyone asked me at trial, I would have testified that police pressured me into testifying and that I did not believe Edward killed anyone," Cline says in a recent affidavit.

In Conley's death, prosecutors told the jury Chapman was the last person with whom Conley was seen alive. Witnesses testified they saw the two together between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Aug. 14, 1992.

But according to the appeal, at least four other people say they saw Conley alive that day, hours after she had been seen with Chapman.

A friend of Conley's told police he saw her at 10 a.m. and at 5 p.m. on Aug. 14. She was alone, standing outside a pool hall, he said. Conley's body was found about 4:45 p.m. Aug. 15.

Rights violated?

But this statement was not provided to Chapman's defense lawyers for trial, the appeal says. Chapman's current attorneys say that violated Chapman's constitutional right requiring prosecutors to turn over information that suggests reasonable doubt about a suspect's guilt.

The N.C. attorney general counters in court filings that prosecutors did not believe they had to share the statement, and even if they had, the statement would not have made a difference in the jury's decision.

Two jurors, however, say in Chapman's appeal such information might have swayed them.

"If I believed that this evidence was true, this would have raised a reasonable doubt in my mind and I would not have been able to convict him in the Conley case," jury foreman Gail Deal said in an affidavit filed with the appeal.

Former Catawba County prosecutor Jason Parker, who handled Chapman's case, declined to discuss the allegations. He left Catawba County last year for a prosecutor's job in Iredell County.

Jury misconduct also tarnished Chapman's trial, his appeal says. Two jurors say in affidavits that during deliberations, jurors discussed and concluded Chapman had likely killed a 13-year-old Shelby girl whose body was found the same summer as Ramseur's and Conley's.

Chapman was never charged in the girl's slaying, nor was that slaying discussed in the trial. The judge had instructed the jury to consider evidence only introduced at trial.

One juror's behavior during the trial is also at issue. Irene Freeman slept through essential testimony until the judge ordered her to wake up, according to the appeal.

Attorneys an issue

Chapman's current attorneys also say the performance of Chapman' s trial lawyers - Robert Adams and Thomas Portwood - prevented him from getting a fair trial.

Among their alleged errors: Failure to interview numerous witnesses, failure to present a witness who gave Chapman an alibi for Ramseur's murder, failure to cross-examine a police detective in the case who was abusing painkillers and stealing prescription drugs during the investigation, according to the appeal.

The lawyers also were "excessive users of alcohol," the appeal says, and the drinking "could not but have had an effect on their abilities."

Portwood, who died in June, admitted in court he drank more than a pint of 80-proof rum nearly every night during Chapman's trial and others. Portwood told the Observer in 2000 that his drinking did not hurt his trial performance.

Adams, Chapman's lead attorney, told the N.C. Bar he drank three scotches a night but said it did not affect his trial performance. A 1998 psychiatrist's evaluation of Adams , ordered! by the N.C. Bar, concluded that Adams "had a drinking problem" and referred him to Alcoholics Anonymous, according to a discipline order from the Bar.

Adams declined to discuss Chapman's trial or his drinking.

It's common for death-row inmates to ask for new trials. Allegations of incompetent defense are raised more often than claims of prosecutorial misconduct, but are harder to prove, experts say.

The U.S. Supreme Court set a tough standard in 1984, saying appeals courts must start with the "strong presumption" a lawyer's performance was reasonable.

Still, judges today are more likely to grant hearings for appeals, says Duke University law professor James Coleman.

A number of well-publicized events in recent years have focused attention on how mistakes and misconduct may have rendered a trial unfair.

In 2002, Gov. George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions in Illinois after 13 death row inmates were exonerated.

In South Carolina , judges ruled a prosecutor's conduct prejudiced the defendant and reversed or remanded the conviction, sentence or indictment in 19 cases, according to a study by The Center for Public Integrity published last year.

And in North Carolina , at least eight people have been taken off death row because of prosecutorial misconduct.

Copyright (c) 2004 The Charlotte Observer