Innocence Project attorneys say a man who was identified as a possible new suspect in the 1991 killing and sexual assault of a Virginia woman who was visiting Hawaii killed himself last week after police took a DNA swab from him.
Discover incredible Insider Deals that will make your life a little bit easierFILE - A court officer removes Albert"Ian" Schweitzer's handcuffs following the judge's decision to release him from prison immediately, after spending more than 20 years in prison, Jan. 24, 2023, in Hilo, Hawaii.
Schweitzer's attorneys took the police to task on Monday, alleging that they intentionally botched the investigation into the man who died last week by not taking steps to ensure that he didn’t flee or kill himself after they obtained his DNA. They suggested that because of the man's death, the truth about what happened to Ireland will never come to light. They also demanded a federal investigation, as well as all communications related to the DNA work.
Mayor Mitch Roth, who was the Big Island's top prosecutor when Schweitzer’s attorneys and prosecutors entered into a “conviction integrity agreement” to reinvestigate the case, said Monday that he stands behind the police and noted that the results from the swab they collected didn't come in until after the man died.
The push to find out who killed Ireland gained renewed traction after the January 2023 release of Schweitzer, who was convicted in 2000 and sentenced to 130 years in prison. Innocence Project lawyers who took up his case argued that he didn’t match the DNA on a T-shirt found near Ireland. The shirt didn't belong to Ireland but was soaked with her blood and contained DNA from an unknown man.
The match, according the recent court filing, lived less than 2 miles from where Ireland's body was found along a fishing trail in a remote part of the Big Island, would have been in his mid-20s at the time and owned or had access to a pickup truck that would have left the tire marks found at the scene.
A 2023 petition filed in the quest to release Schweitzer, the last of the three Native Hawaiian men who remained imprisoned in the killing, outlined the case, which was one of the Hawaii’s most notorious.
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