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Hennepin County Attorney: Billy Glaze Should Not Get A New Trial

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Hennepin County Attorney said Friday in a court filing that a man convicted of a serial killings in the 1980s should not receive a new trial.

Billy Richard Glaze, 70, was convicted of killing three Native American women in 1986 and 1987.

Earlier this year the Innocence Project filed court papers attempting to free Glaze. At the time, prosecutors used circumstantial evidence to tie Glaze to the killings, but the Innocence Project says it now has DNA evidence linking another man to the murders.

According to the Innocence Project court papers, semen from another convicted killer was found in one of the victims hours before her death.

The same man's DNA was then found on a cigarette butt found at one of the other murder scenes.

After reviewing the new evidence, the Hennepin County Attorney said in a statement that Billy Glaze should not receive a new trial because the new evidence presented was "inconclusive and unpersuasive."

The statement also said the "evidence did not meet the clear and convincing standard required for a new trial."

According to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, the semen found in the victim cannot conclusively point to when sexual intercourse took place, and it was clear she was alive several hours after. Another man's DNA was also found in the victim.

Freeman went on to say that the DNA found on the cigarette was inconclusive because it was only partial, meaning it could have been the man's father or brother who worked and attended the center at which the murder took place.

Finally, Freeman said that Glaze had until 2007 to request for an appeal after DNA testing became available but waited until 2014.

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