mysteriew
A diamond in process
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2004
- Messages
- 23,811
- Reaction score
- 783
The next night, March 18, 2002, Duffy Lincoln found his mother's body on the floor by the bed. There was a deep stab wound in her neck. She was 74.
Within a week, the police were focused on Leslie Lincoln as the suspect. They arrested her six months later with information from confidential informants. The clincher came in July 2003, more than a year after the crime, when a DNA report came back. A bloodstain on her mother's bedsheets matched Leslie's DNA.
The evidence seemed to seal the case - even for those who wanted to believe that she was innocent.
"When it first came back ... I really was thinking, 'She must have done this,'" said Sharla Lincoln, Leslie Lincoln's sister-in-law. "You think something coming out of the state lab is going to be right. Knowing how much DNA means to people now, if the DNA says you did it, then you did it."
Except the lab was wrong.
In addition, interviews with some of the confidential informants police relied on describe interrogation methods that include implicit threats, among other tactics, designed to get the witnesses to support the police theory - that Leslie Lincoln killed her mother.
In motions filed last week, Lincoln's attorneys alleged that the state has no physical evidence, eyewitnesses or confession tying Lincoln to her mother's death. Instead, the motions allege, the state is relying on jailhouse informants to make a case against her, with a promise to at least one informant to drop felony charges in exchange for testimony.
Leslie Lincoln, 50, remains in the Pitt County Detention Center. Her trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12.
The police theories that Duffy Lincoln is aware of have all been discredited in his mind. The missing OxyContin was found. He was the person who gave Leslie Lincoln their mother's diamond ring. And, most important, his sister's DNA was not on his mother's bloodstained sheets.
Duffy Lincoln said he always cooperated with the police in the belief that the investigation would move away from his sister.
"Every time I interviewed with them it seemed it always went back to Leslie,'' he said. "I guess in my naivete I thought they'd figure out she didn't do it and move on to who really did it.
"It was almost surreal that they were after Leslie. When I watch CSI or something, one of the investigators says, 'Don't chase the suspect. Follow the evidence.' And they never did that."
http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satel...rticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784716491&path=&s=
Within a week, the police were focused on Leslie Lincoln as the suspect. They arrested her six months later with information from confidential informants. The clincher came in July 2003, more than a year after the crime, when a DNA report came back. A bloodstain on her mother's bedsheets matched Leslie's DNA.
The evidence seemed to seal the case - even for those who wanted to believe that she was innocent.
"When it first came back ... I really was thinking, 'She must have done this,'" said Sharla Lincoln, Leslie Lincoln's sister-in-law. "You think something coming out of the state lab is going to be right. Knowing how much DNA means to people now, if the DNA says you did it, then you did it."
Except the lab was wrong.
In addition, interviews with some of the confidential informants police relied on describe interrogation methods that include implicit threats, among other tactics, designed to get the witnesses to support the police theory - that Leslie Lincoln killed her mother.
In motions filed last week, Lincoln's attorneys alleged that the state has no physical evidence, eyewitnesses or confession tying Lincoln to her mother's death. Instead, the motions allege, the state is relying on jailhouse informants to make a case against her, with a promise to at least one informant to drop felony charges in exchange for testimony.
Leslie Lincoln, 50, remains in the Pitt County Detention Center. Her trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 12.
The police theories that Duffy Lincoln is aware of have all been discredited in his mind. The missing OxyContin was found. He was the person who gave Leslie Lincoln their mother's diamond ring. And, most important, his sister's DNA was not on his mother's bloodstained sheets.
Duffy Lincoln said he always cooperated with the police in the belief that the investigation would move away from his sister.
"Every time I interviewed with them it seemed it always went back to Leslie,'' he said. "I guess in my naivete I thought they'd figure out she didn't do it and move on to who really did it.
"It was almost surreal that they were after Leslie. When I watch CSI or something, one of the investigators says, 'Don't chase the suspect. Follow the evidence.' And they never did that."
http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satel...rticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784716491&path=&s=
