Attorney Seeks To Reopen 37-Year-Old Murder Case With DNA Testing
DELAWARE COUNTY, PA (CBS) -- A Delaware County judge has heard testimony on why DNA testing should be used to reopen a 37-year-old murder case.
Sixty-year-old Leroy Evans has been in prison for 37 years, for a murder he says he didn't commit.
Anthony Jones, Evans' co-defendant in the 1980 beating and choking death of Emily Leo, now says he implicated Evans back then in a deal to avoid the death penalty.
Evans' attorney Michael Malloy is seeking to reopen the case with DNA testing on a clothesline used to kill Leo.
"What was not known to anybody back in 1980 was, what Jones tells me in 2016, which is, one, that Evans was not there, two, Jones went to his backyard, yanked a piece of rope off and strangled the lady," said Malloy.
Assistant District Attorney Bill Toal says however the tests come out, they won't exonerate Evans.
"Regardless of what the results are, it's not going to be dispositive, or, definitive, in terms of actual innocence," Toal said.
Judge James Bradley hears oral arguments in the case on February 5th.
