Sedley Alley: Difference between revisions
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Other problems likewise call the conviction into question. For example, a witness to the abduction of Suzanne Collins described the suspect as 5’8” with a dark complexion - Sedley Alley is 6’4” with a pale white complexion. |
Other problems likewise call the conviction into question. For example, a witness to the abduction of Suzanne Collins described the suspect as 5’8” with a dark complexion - Sedley Alley is 6’4” with a pale white complexion. |
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While Sedley Alley confessed to police, the tape of his confession is less than one hour long, yet the police records indicate that he was interrogated for over two hours. Why the full interrogation was not recorded (as procedure dictates) has never been explained. Moreover, examples of false and coerced confessions abound. A number of innocent people confessed to being the Central Park rapist, for example. Sedley Alley’s confession is particularly dubious because the facts he related bear little resemblance to the actual facts of the crime. While Alley confessed that he had hit Suzanne Collins with his car and then struck her in the head with a screwdriver, Dr. Bell, the coroner who examined Suzanne Collins’ body, said that neither event occurred. |
While Sedley Alley confessed to police, the tape of his confession is less than one hour long, yet the police records indicate that he was interrogated for over two hours. Why the full interrogation was not recorded (as procedure dictates) has never been explained. Moreover, examples of false and coerced confessions abound. A number of innocent people confessed to being the Central Park rapist, for example. Sedley Alley’s confession is particularly dubious because the facts he related bear little resemblance to the actual facts of the crime. While Alley confessed that he had hit Suzanne Collins with his car and then struck her in the head with a screwdriver, Dr. Bell, the coroner who examined Suzanne Collins’ body, said that neither event occurred. |
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==Arrest== |
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Suzanne's body was found a few hours later, and Alley was immediately arrested by military police. He voluntarily gave a statement to the police, admitting to having killed Collins but giving a substantially false - and considerably more humane - account of the circumstances of the killing.(citation) |
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Sedley Alley's story was that his wife left him after getting in a fight. He drank two six-packs of beer and a bottle of wine. He told authorities that he had gone out for more liquor when his car accidentally hit Collins as she jogged near the Millington Naval Base. Alley's story is that he accidentally killed the young woman -- who was due to graduate from aviation school the next day. However, an autopsy revealed that her skull had been fractured with a screwdriver. After she died, a tree limb was rammed into her vagina with sufficient force to enter her abdomen and lacerate one of her lungs. Alley tried to convince a jury that he had [[multiple personality disorder]].(citation) |
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Revision as of 10:33, 28 June 2006
Sedley Alley (August 16, 1955 - June 28, 2006) was a convicted murderer and rapist executed by lethal injection in Tennessee. In 1987 he was convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of Marine Lance Corporal Suzanne Marie Collins near Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington, Tennessee. Alley, a civilian married to a military person, abducted nineteen-year Collins while she was jogging near the Millington base late in the evening of July 11, 1985.
Murder
Untested DNA and Withheld Evidence
Sedley Alley is sentenced to die on May 17th for the 1985 abduction and murder of Suzanne Collins despite serious concerns about the reliability of his conviction. Evidence, which was withheld from the defense at trial, indicates that police had Alley under surveillance at the time of the homicide. The coroner’s report indicates that the Ms. Collins died no earlier than 1:30 on the morning of July 12, 1985, yet police had arrested Sedley Alley at 12:10 that same morning and had kept him under surveillance after releasing him. This evidence, which had been withheld for twenty years, seriously calls into question Sedley Alley’s guilt, since the police’s own records show that he was not present at the time of the victim’s death. Physical evidence exists that could establish, once and for all, whether or not Sedley Alley is guilty or innocent. The Memphis Criminal Court Clerk has possession of Suzanne Collins’ t-shirt, bra, shoes, underwear, and jogging shorts, as well as underwear of unknown origin, but supposedly belonging to her attacker. This evidence has never been tested for DNA evidence, which can conclusively incriminate and exclude subjects. The testing can be done quickly, with no cost to the state and no delay of the execution, should it, in fact, point to Sedley Alley as the killer. But the state has opposed all attempts to have this evidence tested. Sedley Alley has filed a petition with the United States District Court to order that this evidence be handed over for testing before he is executed. Previous hair analysis of hairs found on Ms. Collin’s shoes and socks did not match those of Sedley Alley. Other problems likewise call the conviction into question. For example, a witness to the abduction of Suzanne Collins described the suspect as 5’8” with a dark complexion - Sedley Alley is 6’4” with a pale white complexion. While Sedley Alley confessed to police, the tape of his confession is less than one hour long, yet the police records indicate that he was interrogated for over two hours. Why the full interrogation was not recorded (as procedure dictates) has never been explained. Moreover, examples of false and coerced confessions abound. A number of innocent people confessed to being the Central Park rapist, for example. Sedley Alley’s confession is particularly dubious because the facts he related bear little resemblance to the actual facts of the crime. While Alley confessed that he had hit Suzanne Collins with his car and then struck her in the head with a screwdriver, Dr. Bell, the coroner who examined Suzanne Collins’ body, said that neither event occurred.