Ex-death row inmate walks out a free man

GREENWOOD, S.C. -- Edward Lee Elmore glanced at the ceiling when a judge asked him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty to the murder he has spent decades denying. He whispered to his lawyer, who had told him "freedom is justice," and then looked toward the heavens again.

"Yes sir," he said quietly. With those words, he ended a 30-year stint in prison that saw 30 of his friends on death row die.

Elmore was convicted three times of killing Dorothy Edwards, and each time an appeals court overturned the verdict. Elmore lived nearby and did odd jobs for the 75-year-old widow, who was found in the closet of her Greenwood home in January 1982. She had been beaten and stabbed more than 50 times, prosecutor Jerry Peace said.

Prosecutors agreed his punishment should be the 11,000 days Elmore spent behind bars, much of it on death row. He got off death row in 2010 when his attorneys argued he was mentally disabled and had a low IQ. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled states can't execute the mentally disabled, and his punishment was reduced to life in prison.

On Friday, prosecutors dropped rape and burglary charges, and an hour after the hearing, Elmore walked out of the Greenwood County courthouse a free man.

"What a great day," Elmore said in the parking lot.

Peace said he still thinks Elmore killed Edwards. He said Elmore confessed, telling investigators he may have blacked out as he attacked her.

Small spots of the victim's blood were found on Elmore's jeans, Peace said, but he decided to make the deal for two reasons.

First, Edwards' sister asked him to end three decades of uncertainty and phone calls from reporters and others. "I want peace, I need peace. Can you get me peace?" the prosecutor recalled her saying.

Second, even if Elmore was convicted and sentenced to life again, he would have been immediately eligible for a parole hearing, Peace said.

And with a spotless prison record, his chances were good. "He didn't even cuss a guard," Peace said.

Elmore's lawyer wanted to see him exonerated. But she told him he could be convicted again in a trial and taking an Alford plea, where he maintains his innocence but admits there is a lot of evidence against him, was the best thing he could do.

"Freedom is justice and that's why he is doing it today," defense lawyer Diana Holt said.