Hall's attorney seeks to exclude fingerprint evidence

March 27, 2008

Defense attorneys are asking a Johnson County judge to throw out the fingerprint evidence prosecutors say they have against Edwin R. Hall, who is charged with capital murder.

In a motion filed late Wednesday, defense attorney Paul Cramm states that investigators found at least 29 partial prints on the car that 18-year-old Kelsey Smith was driving when she disappeared June 2 from the Target parking lot next to Oak Park Mall in Overland Park.

Authorities could link only one of those partial prints to Hall, Cramm wrote. The methodology used to make that determination also is subjective and untested, he stated.

The motion to exclude the evidence is supported by affidavits from three forensic fingerprint experts.

Hall, 26, is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 16 in the kidnapping, rape and murder of the Overland Park woman. Her body was found June 6 in a wooded area near Longview Lake in southern Jackson County. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Cramm said Thursday he could not comment because of a gag order in the case. District Attorney Phill Kline, who has been prosecuting the case with Deputy District Attorney Stephen Maxwell, also declined through a spokeswoman to comment.

According to the motion, a Johnson County sheriff's deputy processed the interior and exterior of Smith's car for fingerprints in the garage of the Overland Park Police Department on or about June 4. A second sheriff's deputy was there to document the process.

The first deputy collected a set of prints from Hall, who was known as the suspect, and made the identification. His work was reviewed by a member of the same agency who knew beforehand that the match had been made.

Cramm argues that the review should have been conducted by someone who was not aware of the initial finding. The methodology used to determine a match is subjective, he said, and having that prior knowledge could have influenced the review.

The methodology used has never been subjected to scientific testing, the motion states, so the error rate in latent print identification is not known. However, it says, there are enough cases of erroneous identifications to establish that a substantial error rate exists.

Judge Peter Ruddick has not yet set a hearing date on the defense request.

@ To read Stephen Maxwell's resignation letter, go to KansasCity.com.

Kline assistant resigning

Johnson County Prosecutor Stephen Maxwell, who has been handling the Kelsey Smith capital murder case with District Attorney Phill Kline, is resigning, the office announced Thursday.

Kline spokesman Brian Burgess said in an e-mail that Maxwell, the office's senior deputy district attorney, has accepted a position as a senior prosecutor in the Reno County prosecutor's office. Maxwell's service in Johnson County will end April 19.

Maxwell also worked with Kline in the recent first-degree murder trial of John Henry Horton. In that case, Horton was found guilty of abducting and killing 13-year-old Lizabeth Wilson of Prairie Village in 1974.

Burgess said Maxwell has family in Reno County and south-central Kansas.

'Mr. Maxwell has provided outstanding service to the citizens of Johnson County and I wish him every success in his endeavors,' Kline said in a statement.

In his March 21 resignation letter, Maxwell praised Kline.

'It has been my honor to stand with you in the search for truth and justice,' Maxwell wrote. 'I believe your efforts have enhanced the rule of law in this state.'

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