Did dying man use eye blinks to ID gunman?
CINCINNATI A criminal justice organization in the U.S. is backing a murder suspect's efforts to exclude from his trial a videotape of a dying man's blinking eyes, which allegedly identified the suspect as the gunman.
Ricardo Woods is to go on trial Monday in the October 2010 shooting of 35-year-old David Chandler in Ohio. Chandler was shot in the head and neck as he sat in his car. He was paralyzed and hooked up to a ventilator when police interviewed him days before his death and could only communicate by blinking.
Judge Beth Myers ruled that jurors can see that videotaped interview in September 2011. Myers watched the video herself in 2011 and said Chandler identified the shooter as "O," apparently Woods' street name.
Prosecutors say Chandler clearly identified 34-year-old Woods as the shooter. But the defense insists the identification is unreliable.
The Innocence Project filed a motion last week supporting that request and offering research on eyewitness identification.