Janice Morse reports:
After one failed attempt to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, Ryan Widmer’s appellate lawyer is urging the court to consider whether DNA testing could prove “whether a crime occurred at all” in the 2008 bathtub drowning of his wife.
Last week, in a split decision, the Supreme Court refused to consider a first appeal based largely on assertions that authorities had illegally seized the bathtub as evidence. Three of the court’s seven justices said they would have accepted the appeal.
On Wednesday, attorney Michele Berry filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court, this time focusing on issues that arose after a Warren County jury convicted Widmer in his third trial in 2011. Berry called the case worthy of Supreme Court attention because it is “of great public interest and involves substantial constitutional questions.”
Specifically, Berry argues that a Middletown-based appeals court “misinterpreted” existing case law surrounding DNA testing in Ohio when it agreed with Judge Neal Bronson’s refusal to order genetic testing on blood from Widmer’s wife, Sarah.
Widmer and his supporters say his young wife showed possible signs of a genetic heart-rhythm disorder that could have caused her to drown. But she was never tested for that condition, “Long QT Syndrome,” or a similar problem.
“Sarah suffered from many of the symptoms associated with Long QT Syndrome, including a cleft palate and heart-murmur as a child, narcolepsy-like symptoms during life, short stature and death from drowning,” Berry wrote.
While the possibility of Sarah Widmer suffering from that syndrome was raised at trial, testing positive for it “changes the entire landscape of the evidence,” Berry wrote.
“Ohio’s DNA testing scheme lacks a process for defendants such as Widmer, for whom post-conviction DNA testing could raise reasonable doubt as to whether a crime even occurred at all, rather than the crime having been committed by an alternative suspect,” Berry wrote.
Berry points out that Widmer had no marks on his body indicative of a struggle. Injuries to Sarah’s head and neck areas could have been caused by life-saving efforts, defense witnesses said. But prosecution witnesses interpreted those marks as signs of a forced drowning.
Widmer, 32, a Colerain Township native who last lived in Mason, is serving 15 years to life in prison, and has maintained his innocence.
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