A man serving a life sentence for a 1994 rape and murder in Maine was denied a new trial on Tuesday, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Foster Bates was seeking a retrial based on new witness testimony and a new expert opinion of DNA evidence that failed to find Bates’ DNA on a sock that was found stuffed in the mouth of the woman he was alleged to have killed.
Maine Superior Court Justice Thomas McKeon previously ordered a hearing for Bates to present new evidence that had been procedurally barred from consideration, according to previous reporting by the Maine Monitor.
But on Tuesday, McKeon ruled that the evidence was not strong enough to require a new trial.
Bates was convicted in 2002 of murdering Tammy Dickson in 1994. Dickson was found bound, gagged and strangled to death in her South Portland apartment with Bates semen inside her.
Bates said he was in a sexual relationship with Dickson, who was a neighbor, but he has maintained his innocence and repeatedly sought new trials through Maine’s post-conviction review process.
In addition to the new DNA interpretation, new witnesses have come forward in the 31 years since Bates was convicted, but statutory time limits have worked against his bids to have it considered.
Maine bars new witness testimony from DNA reviews, which are limited to DNA evidence, and additionally imposes a one-year deadline on bringing forward new evidence, starting the clock from when that evidence “could have been discovered through the exercise of due diligence.”
Bates, however, was allowed to present testimony from two new witnesses in July under the “actual innocence gateway,” which is based on a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to the Maine Monitor. The innocence gateway waives time limits for convicts with compelling evidence of innocence that had been dismissed for procedural reasons.
Two new witnesses spoke at a hearing in July. Shawna Poulin claimed to have overheard another suspect, Michael Bridges, confess to murdering Dickson but recanted in her testimony, the Press Herald reported. The second witness, Amanda Indigo, testified that she was in Dicksons’ apartment the night she was killed and saw Bates leave the apartment while Dickson was still alive.
Bates also presented expert testimony from Heather Coyle who argued the perpetrator’s DNA would have been found on the sock in Dickson’s mouth because of the nature of the crime.
McKeon ruled that the new opinion on evidence already considered by the courts did not warrant a retrial.
