Assertions that point to Donnie’s Innocence
1. Mobile City police staged the scene to meet their criteria for a homicide.
2. The detective in charge that ultimately made the decision to consider Kaye’s suicide a murder had graduated from the police academy only 18 months previously. The first police to arrive were rookies. The detective was looking to put a “notch” on his gun handle.
3. The detectives that conducted the interrogation continually tried to convince Donnie to confess because the coroner was very thorough and knew that he would loose his job if he made a mistake.
4. At no time did the police check Donnie's hands for powder burns or residue. However the police did remove 4 light switch plates to check for gunshot residue. Apparently there was none. That is a fact that was never entered into evidence during the trial. Amazing!
5. The trajectory of the gunshot makes it impossible for it to occur from 2-5 feet away from a standing position (as was asserted by the prosecution). Donnie is 76" tall and Kaye slept with her head on a pillow. For the bullet to enter under her chin and end up in the superior posterior portion of her skull, the trajectory had to come from bed level. This point was never questioned by Donnie’s attorney. Amazing!
6. The coroner testified that it was impossible for Kaye to have pulled the trigger of the weapon because her arms were too short. Under cross-examination the coroner admitted that he never physically measured Kaye’s arms, but estimated her arm’s length from photos. Amazing!
7. A letter was sent to our attorney from a male friend of Kaye's. He had committed suicide several weeks after Kaye. In the letter he admitted to having an affair with Kaye and that he could not go on living because of Kaye’s death and many other things. Our attorney took the word of the male friend’s wife that no affair had occurred. No further investigation was carried out. Amazing!
8. Our attorney displayed little preparation for Donnie’s defense, and the judge was a rookie that never before had presided over a murder trial.
9. We know that Donnie’s church was attended by many "old money", “old Mobile” attorneys and politicos. It was rumored that pressure phone calls were made to the rookie judge suggesting that no slack be given to Donnie during the trial. We suspect this to be true but proving it would require an exceptional investigator.
10. Madeline’s testimony, through her grandmother, was deemed as hearsay by the judge and our attempt to have it admitted, as an excited utterance was not permitted. This testimony would have exonerated Donnie. Our attorney chose not to let Donnie’s only alibi witness speak directly to the jury. Double amazing!
11. The prosecution said that Donnie was covering up embezzlement and that that was the motive Donnie had to murder. Our attorney was notified of this only two weeks before the trial. Because we did not have adequate time to obtain evidence to counter the embezzlement charges, we objected to its admittance until we were given time. We asked for a delay in the trial, but were over ruled by the judge. (As a matter of fact, not a single objection made by Donnie’s attorney [there were 70 objections raised] during the entire trial was upheld, and not a single objection made by the prosecution was over ruled. Amazing!)
12. The trial judge over Donnie’s objection allowed the prosecution to force the jury to watch a videotape of the police interrogation of Donnie the night of Kaye’s suicide. The tape was several hours long; the sole purpose of the prosecution using the videotape was to paint Donnie as an embezzler and murderer. There was no opportunity for Donnie to challenge the allegations on the videotape or to cross-examine the interrogators. It was very unfair to Donnie and his defense to allow the jury to hear hours of conjecture and allegations with no basis without any opportunity to defend himself. This was one of many dirty tricks used by the police and prosecution to convict Donnie. Amazing!
13. As noted by Donnie's Statement, Kaye admitted to him that she had embezzled this money; however no attempt to investigate Kaye's possible involvement was carried out by either the prosecution or the defense. There was never a 2nd bank account opened. Kaye took care of all of the finances. At the very least, she should have been considered a willing accomplice, not a victim. Amazing!
14. A single email sent by Kaye the evening of her suicide was extracted off Donnie and Kaye’s computer and was used by the DA as "key evidence" by the state to "prove" that Kaye had no intention of committing suicide. There was no rebuttal from our attorney or any attempt to show that most suicides are not “telegraphed” by the victim. There was no cross-examination asking email recipient if she knew when the email was actually written vs. when it was sent. The police unbelievably “lost” the computer after they extracted the single email and disallowed Donnie the opportunity to search for other emails that might have supported our assertion that Kaye was unstable. Amazing!
15. Donnie was not permitted to testify on his behalf. While this could be part of our attorney's strategy it turned out to be inappropriate.
16. The jury was never told that Donnie had not been charged with embezzlement, even though the first 3 days of the trial was an attempt to convince the jury that Donnie was an embezzler. There was less than $34,000 in question, but the prosecution successfully painted Donnie as a multi-million dollar type of embezzler.
17. During the trial the prosecution’s expert witness said it would have been impossible for Kaye to pull the trigger with her finger. The coroner never actually measured the length of Kaye’s arms, but used photos of Kaye to estimate the length of her arms. Amazing! We countered with an expert witness who said that Kaye could have pulled the trigger with her socked toe. In final arguments the prosecution made mockery of this theory and our attorney did not counter. Amazing!
18. The Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court are renowned rubber stampers of decisions made by the lower courts. It is highly likely that not a single justice read a single sentence of our appeal briefs. That’s just the way the court operates regarding non-high profile cases. Amazing!
19. Kaye had already exhibited suicidal ideations, anorexia, bulimia, and Munchausen’s by proxy syndrome. These facts were not investigated by either the police or Donnie’s attorney. Kaye's physicians' records were not subpoenaed. Neither were the records from Madeline's pediatricians. Amazing!