Arey never got his blood-stained shirt back.
The case against him appeared to be strong. After Arey was fired, a threatening note was found stuck under his boss' door. A witness, Dennis Moon, testified under immunity that he lured the boss, Samuel Shapiro, to the Belvedere Hotel, where Arey shot and killed him in May 1973.
Together, Moon and Arey put Shapiro's body in a trunk and threw it in a Pennsylvania ravine, according to the court's opinion. Arey confessed to shooting Shapiro about a week later, and after police charged him, they confiscated a shirt of Arey's, which was later determined to have Shapiro's blood type on it.
The court granted Arey the right to an independent analysis, but the state said that there was "insufficient blood remaining" to run a second test.
Since then, leaps in technology allow DNA to be recovered from the tiniest of stains.
"This defendant has filed more than a half-dozen motions for post-conviction relief and this is yet another," said Margaret T. Burns, a spokeswoman for Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. "All previous requests have been denied. Our prosecutors will follow the law, and the law says that a search will be conducted."
melissa.harris@baltsun.com
Sun reporters John Fritze and Annie Linskey contributed to this article.
