Judge denies request for DNA test of executed man

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The daughter of a man executed 13 years ago for murder does not have legal standing to seek DNA testing of evidence in the case, a Memphis judge ruled Monday, but the judge also said the ruling wasn’t based on the merits of the claims.

April Alley is the daughter of Sedley Alley, executed in 2006 for the murder two decades earlier of Marine Lance Cpl. Suzanne Collins. Earlier this year, April Alley petitioned the court on behalf of her father’s estate to order DNA testing. The move came after investigators in a Missouri murder case contacted the Innocence Project about a possible connection between a suspect in that case and Collins.

“I’m heartbroken,” Alley said in a Monday statement about the ruling. “Frankly, I’m numb.”

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan heard arguments in the case last month and dismissed the petition Monday, ruling that under state law, April Alley lacked standing to bring the petition on behalf of her father’s estate, so the court has no jurisdiction to consider the petition.

Since the early 1990s, 22 death row inmates around the U.S. have been absolved of crimes through DNA evidence. Innocence Project attorneys had hoped to use such evidence for the first time to exonerate a person who has already been executed.

A statement from the Innocence Project on Monday said they were very disappointed in the decision and have already filed a notice of appeal.

Collins was 19 and stationed at the former Memphis Naval Air Station in Millington, Tenn., when she disappeared while jogging in a nearby park. Her body was discovered early the next day.

Sedley Alley confessed to the crime after 12 hours of questioning but later said the confession was coerced. Alley, 50, who had spent two decades on Tennessee’s death row, was put to death by injection on June 28, 2006.

Memphis prosecutors opposed the testing.