Bloodied clothing that might exonerate a man convicted of killing his ex-boss more than 30 years ago could be sitting inside a city warehouse uncataloged - or it might be buried in a pile of items damaged during Tropical Storm Isabel.
But city prosecutors and police have told a judge that a thorough search for the evidence - as ordered by Maryland's highest court - will require them to inventory storage facilities that are "larger than the size of a football field" and comb through storm-damaged items at a cost of $50,000.
Assistant State's Attorney Sharon R. Holback wrote that the Police Department won't have the money at least until a new fiscal year begins in July. The city has an anticipated a $10 million budget deficit this year that officials are trying to balance through a hiring freeze and spending cuts.
"Short of a large-scale search of the entire facility, piece by piece, there's no way to say for certain the status of the evidence," Holback told Circuit Judge Kaye A. Allison in November. "The only way to definitively put this question to rest of whether or not the Police Department still has the evidence in this case is to retain a private contractor to come and sort through the biohazardous material and damaged material that has remained untouched since Isabel."
So Douglas Scott Arey - who has been in prison for more than three decades - will continue waiting on his request for post-conviction DNA testing on a bloody shirt used as evidence against him at trial.
Allison yesterday postponed making a decision on what to do after Holback sent her a letter in February explaining that the money for the search had not been approved.
Two years ago, the sergeant in charge of the Police Department's evidence control unit wrote that Arey's clothing had long ago been destroyed, a conclusion he reached after a search of police computer records and paperwork.
In a unanimous opinion last summer, however, Court of Appeals Judge Irma S. Raker said that wasn't good enough, listing more than a dozen places the state should check, including hospitals, laboratories and even judge's chambers.
"Because the State was the custodian of the evidence, the State needs to check any place the evidence could reasonably be found, unless there is a written record that the evidence had been destroyed in accordance with then existing protocol," Raker wrote, overturning Allison's decision to dismiss Arey's request.
