State court won't reconsider family slaying case

By Charles Wilson Associated Press Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) § A lawyer for a former state trooper whose two convictions in the deaths of his wife and children have been set aside on appeal said Monday she would seek to have him released on bond ahead of a third murder trial. "We are certainly going to try," Bloomington attorney Katharine Liell said after the Indiana Supreme Court rejected the attorney general's request for a rehearing on its decision to overturn David Camm's second conviction. The court ruled in June that the judge in Camm's retrial improperly allowed prosecutors to raise the prospect that he molested his daughter without presenting evidence to support the claim. Liell said Monday that she had been confident the court would uphold its own decision. "I know an unfair trial when I see it, and we know that Dave Camm was denied a fair trial," she said. "We're happy the Supreme Court has done what we think is right," said Sam Lockhart, Camm's uncle. Liell said she expects Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson to refile murder charges against Camm in the Sept. 28, 2000, killings of Kimberly Camm, 35, and their children § 5-year-old Jill and 7-year-old Bradley § at the family's home in the southern Indiana town of Georgetown. Henderson did not immediately return messages seeking comment. David Camm, 45, remains in prison. He was briefly released on bond while awaiting his second trial. "He's not walking out the door until we get an order," said Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Doug Garrison. Liell said the defense would try to have Camm's third trial moved away from southern Indiana, where the case has received much publicity. She estimated preparations for the new trial might take 18 months. Liell said that in seeking bond for Camm, she would argue the state has a weak case against him. The weaknesses, she said, include two appeals that threw out arguments and the separate murder conviction of Charles Boney, who is serving 225 years in prison after being linked to the crime scene by DNA testing. Prosecutors had argued Boney helped Camm with the killings. Camm's support among the justices, however, was weaker Monday than in June. The court overturned his conviction by a 4-1 vote, while Monday's vote to deny a rehearing was 3-2. Chief Justice Randall Shepard said in a June dissent that the two reversals have "unnecessarily sanitized the evidence against David Camm." Shepard cast the sole dissenting vote then, but was joined Monday by Justice Robert Rucker. Both said they would affirm Camm's conviction. Joel Schumm, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis who once clerked for the state court, said such drastic vote changes were uncommon on the high court. Camm always has maintained his innocence, providing as an alibi 11 people who testified he was with them playing basketball in a nearby church gymnasium when his family was killed. Prosecutors contended Camm left the basketball game, killed his family, then made the five-minute drive back to the church. He reported the deaths when he returned home.

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