Joseph Roger O’Dell was executed July 23, 1997, via lethal injection in Virginia. He was pronounced dead at 9:15 p.m.

What is wrong with this picture? Despite the obvious inhumane nature of capital punishment, the crux of the problem in this case is what didn’t occur.

O’Dell was arrested in 1985 for the murder, rape and sodomy of Helen Schartner. He was convicted of these crimes over a year later based largely on blood evidence and the word of a jailhouse “”snitch.”” Semen samples were preserved from the crime scene but untested.

In a letter dated Aug. 16, 1988, to the Hon. Judge H. Calvin Spain of the Circuit Court of Virginia Beach, O’Dell requested that the semen samples be released into the custody of a DNA fingerprinting lab for testing.

O’Dell wrote, “”If the Commonwealth of Virginia refuses to allow me this chance, then it is going to appear that they are hiding something, and further, it will appear that DNA fingerprinting is being used only to convict accused persons. This is an opportune time for law enforcement to prove that they protect the innocent as well as prosecute the guilty.””

However, this request to test the one piece of evidence that could have cleared him was denied.

Multiple doors of the criminal justice system slammed shut in O’Dell’s face, effectively concealing the truth from ever becoming known.

O’Dell’s request to the court was denied. His appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court to force Virginia to release the DNA samples for testing were denied.

In his dissent, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun found “”serious questions as to whether O’Dell committed the crime”” and warned of “”the gross injustice that would result if an innocent man were sentenced to death.””

Now the world will never know whether O’Dell was truly guilty or completely innocent, as he maintained he was until the lethal injection that ended his life.

Following his death, O’Dell’s wife and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Va., attempted to clear his name and petitioned the circuit court of Virginia Beach to release the evidence for DNA testing. Yet the court once again turned a blind eye to the interests of truth and justice and denied the appeal.

In March 2000, the last of the DNA evidence in the O’Dell case stored in the circuit court of Virginia Beach was burned without any further testing.

How dare the criminal courts and Commonwealth of Virginia obstruct the process of justice and take that man’s life!

The actions of the courts, commonwealth and governor of Virginia are criminal and rise to the standard of obstruction of justice.

The DNA testing could have proven O’Dell’s claims of innocence, yet the courts and commonwealth repeatedly obstructed all avenues for O’Dell to prove it.

Why did this obstruction occur? Because, in the end, one life doesn’t matter as much as safeguarding the reputation of the Commonwealth of Virginia and its criminal justice system.

All it takes is the publicity from one case of an innocent man murdered by the state for the cracks in the criminal justice system to widen and gape dangerously open. And, like a house of cards, our cracked and crippled crial justice system will collapse under the weight of its own corruption.

DNA evidence testing is the antidote to ensure that the innocent are not convicted or executed. Though there is no longer any hope or DNA evidence to conclusively prove O’Dell’s innocence, it’s not too late for the other O’Dells out there.

What happened to O’Dell must not happen to other convicts.

DNA evidence testing is used every day to find and convict perpetrators of crimes, yet when it comes to testing previously untested DNA evidence to clear the convicted, legal roadblocks are enacted. Currently, only 24 states allow DNA testing on appeal processes.

Spearheaded by civil rights groups, DNA testing has recently proven the innocence of, and freed, 110 inmates across the country. According to the May 31 Associated Press investigative report by Sharon Cohen and Deborah Hastings, these 110 innocent men served a total of over 1,000 years in prison.

The AP report reveals that the inmates’ wrongful convictions follow certain patterns. Nearly two-thirds were convicted with mistaken testimony from victims and eyewitnesses. About 14 percent were imprisoned after mistakes or alleged misconduct by forensics experts. Nine were mentally retarded or borderline retarded and confessed, they said, after being tricked or coerced by authorities.

Clearly, our judicial system is severely flawed if those 110 men were wrongfully convicted in the first place.

How many more innocent people are behind bars or awaiting death for crimes they didn’t commit?

Allowing universal DNA testing on appeals is the only way to safeguard the rights of all. It is the only way to protect the innocent.

DNA testing freed 110 men. The lack of DNA testing killed O’Dell.

How many more innocents must die before reform occurs?