Experience on death row discussed

Kirk Bloodsworth, the first death row inmate to be exonerated by DNA evidence, spoke Thursday night in Ballantine Hall about his being wrongfully convicted in 1989 for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl named Dawn Hamilton in 1984. IU's criminal justice department sponsored the lecture. \nAt the time of his arrest, Bloodsworth was a 22-year-old ex-Marine staying in Baltimore. \nHe said he had no knowledge of Hamilton aside from news coverage he had encountered, and his arrest stemmed solely from a composite description of the alleged killer given by two young boys. Although the man in question was described as being skinny and 6-foot-5 and Bloodsworth was considerably shorter and weighed 230 pounds, people he had never seen positively identified him as the suspect.\n"I was thrown into one of the most horrific and graphic trials of Baltimore's history," Bloodsworth said.\nAfter a two-week trial, Bloodsworth was given two life sentences and sent to the Maryland Penitentiary, a place he described as one of the most notorious U.S. prisons.\n"My life was spit, if it was that," he said. "You could smell the hatred in this place."\nBloodsworth said he encountered death threats while in prison and more fights than he could ever imagine. Living conditions were so harsh that he had to stuff toilet paper in his ears so termites wouldn't lay eggs in them.\nIn 1993, after learning about DNA testing, Bloodsworth began to push for the testing of evidence, a concept nearly unheard of at the time. After almost nine years, two of which were on death row, he was cleared of the murder.\n"I remember screaming at the top of my lungs," he said. "I was the happiest person on earth."\nIn the fall of 2003, Hamilton's killer was found. Kimberly Shay Ruffner, who had been arrested several times for the attempted rape of women and girls, had been incarcerated at the Maryland Penitentiary at the same time as Bloodsworth.\n"He slept in the same prison as me for five years and never said anything," he said. \nBloodsworth is now an advocate for DNA testing. He said his motivation for lecturing is educating young people and preventing cases similar to his.\n"If you can kill an innocent person, don't do it," he said. "It's that simple."\nJeff Swiatkowski's interest in law enforcement drew him to the lecture.\n"He's a great speaker -- inspirational, very good," he said.\nBloodsworth said flaws in the justice system that he had experienced could happen to anyone.\n"We work for a system of justice that is adversarial in nature," he said. "Justice can't be adversarial to the truth, and that's what we should be seeking"