AP News, August 1st, 2007
DNA testing of a hair found on a victim in the decades-old Atlanta child slayings provided no definitive link to a convicted killer suspected in the case, but he can't be excluded, either, according to a new FBI report.
Wayne Williams, who was convicted of killing two people and blamed for nearly two dozen others in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has always maintained his innocence.
His attorney requested the mitochondrial DNA tests, which were not available when Williams went to trial in 1982. Lynn Whatley said he was disappointed the results were not more conclusive.
"It would seem to me that mitochondrial should have at least said it was in his family," Whatley said.
District Attorney Paul Howard did not return calls for comment on the report, but his office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation released the report to the Associated Press on Wednesday.
According to the report, eight hair fragments found on the body of 11-year-old Patrick Baltazar, who was found dead in 1981, were compared with samples of Williams' DNA taken from a swab of his mouth.
The test showed the mitochondrial DNA sequence from the two sets of samples are the same except in one position. In that position, the DNA sequence has only been observed in 3.4 percent of the black population based on a database available to the FBI, the report said. Williams is black. The sequence hasn't been observed at all in the white and Hispanic populations, the report said.
"Due to the closely related sequences obtained from specimens," Williams "cannot be excluded as the source of the" hair, the report said.
Microscopic testing of the hair found on Baltazar's body also was compared with hairs taken from Williams' head and pubic area. But the report said the trace testing showed that the hairs had similar characteristics but "no conclusion could be reached."
Between 1979 and 1981, 29 black people, mostly boys, were killed in the Atlanta area, sparking fear throughout the region.
Williams was convicted of murdering Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, and Nathaniel Cater, 27. After the trial, officials declared Williams responsible for 22 other deaths, including Baltazar's, and those cases were closed.
Williams, who claims he was framed, has lost numerous court battles. He is serving two consecutive life terms and has already spent more than 20 years in prison.
Earlier this year, a Superior Court judge ordered the testing of hairs and other evidence. In June, results from testing conducted by a lab at the University of California, Davis, showed that hairs on the bodies of several of the victims contained the same DNA sequence as Williams' dog.
Besides the testing on the hair in the Baltazar case, the judge had ordered at the request of defense lawyers that a car seat admitted into evidence along with the clothing from two of the victims be analyzed. The FBI report asks the two sides to contact the agency to discuss testing of the remaining items.
