DNA tests don't help Amos King

Amos Lee King's best chance at stopping his execution dissolved on Tuesday when last-minute tests on 26-year-old evidence failed to turn up DNA that could have proved his innocence or guilt.

King is scheduled to die Feb. 26 by lethal injection for the 1977 killing of 68-year-old Natalie "Tillie" Brady, a Tarpon Springs widow who was raped, stabbed, beaten and left to die. King has always maintained his innocence, but three rounds of DNA testing have failed to prove it.

Testing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on the nightgown worn by Brady and knitting needles used in the attack revealed no biological material from her attacker. Earlier tests on hair samples, fingernail scrapings and ambulance sheets also were inconclusive.

"They haven't found anything in 26 years," said Brady's niece, Monica Watson of Georgia. "They'll never find anything."

Other critical evidence in the case has been lost or destroyed, including the rape kit and Amos King's allegedly bloody pants.

The nightgown was found recently at the Pinellas County Clerk of Court and had not been tested since 1977.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Susan Schaeffer on Saturday ordered the testing, saying to deny it would only prolong King's execution by prompting another round of motions and appeals.

King, 48, is the longest-serving death row inmate from Pinellas County. His execution date has been set five times. He has received six stays.

"The uncertainty and doubt that surrounds the case continues," said King's lawyer, David Menschel, of the New York-based Innocence Project, which has used DNA evidence to exonerate 116 inmates.

King today enters another phase on death row. Guards will sit outside his cell and monitor him until he is executed or given a stay.

On Tuesday, King and lawyer Peter Cannon discussed the next move. Cannon is preparing appeals of motions rejected in Pinellas Circuit Court on Friday. Those motions asked that King's attorneys be allowed to examine documents from earlier DNA testing and documents from other cases King's lawyers think are relevant.

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