The Kish Report

The Kish Report : the request for further DNA testing in the case of William Thomas Zeigler was denied by Judge Whitehead March 12, 2012.  The hearing for that request took place last Dec 1, 2011, see here. Judge Whitehead had previously ruled that Zeigler should receive state-funding for a blood spatter expert to testify whether a new round of DNA testing should be conducted in his case. That expert was Mr. Paul Kish.

During the December 1 hearing, Mr. Kish “identified four areas of blood on the shirt Zeigler wore that night that he believes should be tested for DNA. They include blood spatter on the center front of the shirt; the left sleeve with a saturation stain; the right front shoulder with spatter; and the outside right cuff with spatter. 

The expert also recommends testing spatter staining on the left cuff of Zeigler’s pants and a saturation stain on the upper left thigh region of the pants. When Senior Ass. State Attorney General Nunnelly asked whether the lack of Edwards’ blood on Zeigler’s clothing would definitively mean he did not kill the man, Kish said, “It means the evidence does not support that he was there when the blood was being spattered.”

Judge Whitehead denied this DNA testing which leaves me wondering whether we will ever find out the truth in this case.

I’d like to hear from other blood pattern experts whether further testing on designated spots could have been exonerating for Mr. Zeigler. Mr. Kish chose those spots because the contention had been that Mr. Zeigler had held his father-in-law, Perry Edwards, in a headlock and beat him. If that were the case, Perry Edwards’ DNA should be on Mr. Zeigler’s clothes on those crucial spots.

Here is the report from Mr. Paul Kish who testified at the DNA hearing in Orange County in the case of William Thomas Zeigler. It is published here with the permission of Mr. Kish as well as the permission of Zeigler’s legal defense team, Mr. John Houston Pope and Mr. Dennis H. Tracey, III.