Opinion ID: 4470376
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Disclosure of new evidence

Text: In the years that followed, Long filed unsuccessful post-conviction petitions in state and federal court, including a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 federal habeas application. North Carolina v. Long, 377 S.E.2d 228 (Mem.) (N.C. 1989); Long v. Dixon, Civ. No. C-89-278-S (M.D.N.C. May 3, 1990). Then, in 2005, he moved in state court for location and preservation of evidence, seeking any biological evidence to use in DNA testing and the pieces of clothing recovered, such as his black leather jacket and green toboggan. The judge granted Long’s motion, ordering the prosecution and law enforcement to locate and preserve all evidence related to his case. The order led to the disclosure of dozens of documents falling into three groups: (1) State Bureau of Investigation forensic reports documenting the testing of physical evidence; (2) the Master Case File on the investigation; and (3) excerpts of Mrs. Bost’s medical records from her hospitalization.
The State disclosed copies of reports and handwritten notes from forensic tests conducted on evidence delivered to the lab by Officer Isenhour. The reports revealed that analysts (1) compared the single hair found at the crime scene with Long’s head and pubic hair samples and concluded that they did not match, noting that no additional hairs were found on Mrs. Bost’s clothing, J.A. 1466; (2) examined Long’s leather jacket, gloves, and toboggan and did not find any trace of paint or carpet fibers matching samples taken from Mrs. Bost’s home, J.A. 1454–55; (3) compared five matchbooks from Long’s car with three burned matches recovered from the upstairs windowsill and found insufficient 8 evidence to conclude that they were linked, J.A. 1463; and (4) compared a latent shoeprint recovered from the front porch bannister of Mrs. Bost’s home with the inked impressions of Long’s shoe bottoms, concluding that Long’s shoes could have made the shoeprint, but there was insufficient information for a definite match, J.A. 1464. The testing of the hair, clothing, and matchbooks was not disclosed to Long’s defense counsel before trial. 2. Master case file documenting evidence submitted for forensic testing The Master Case File contained two “Request[s] For Examination of Physical Evidence,” each written by Officer Isenhour to document items of evidence he delivered for forensic testing the day after Long’s arrest. J.A. 1451, 1465. The first request listed the latent shoeprint taken from outside Mrs. Bost’s house and inked impressions of Long’s shoes. See J.A. 1465. It asked the forensic analysts to “[e]xamine for identification from latent lift to known shoe-bottom impressions.” J.A. 1465. The second request listed 13 additional items of evidence provided for forensic testing, including Long’s leather jacket, green toboggan, and leather gloves; paint and carpet samples taken from the crime scene; samples of Long’s and Mrs. Bost’s head and pubic hair; a “suspect hair from the scene”; matchbooks from Long’s car; burned matches obtained from the upstairs windowsill; and Mrs. Bost’s clothing. J.A. 1454. It requested the examination of Long’s clothing “for the presence of paint and fibers” and to compare any paint or fibers found with the samples taken from Mrs. Bost’s home. Id. It also requested a forensic comparison of the hair found at the scene (and any hairs found on Mrs. 9 Bost’s clothing) with the hair samples taken from Long as well as a comparison of the burned matches from the windowsill with the matchbooks recovered from Long’s car. Neither request was disclosed to Long’s counsel before trial. Moreover, at trial, Isenhour offered an incomplete picture of the testing he had requested. While he testified to delivering the shoeprints for testing, he also said that the black leather jacket, the green toboggan, and black leather gloves remained in his “custody and control” since he received them from another officer during the investigation. J.A. 415–16. 3. The victim’s medical records and biological evidence The county hospital produced to the superior court judge 26 pages of Mrs. Bost’s medical records from her hospitalization and medical examination hours after the rape. After in camera review, the judge authorized the release of 11 pages of the records to Long’s post-conviction counsel. The released records showed that Dr. Monroe collected biological evidence of the rape in accordance with the hospital’s rape protocol: he prepared slides of live spermatozoa, took two swabs of vaginal secretions that he placed in test tubes, and obtained pubic combings. After the examination, the records show that the hospital released pubic hair and one of the test tubes to an officer after authorized by Mrs. Bost. J.A. 1475–79. These records were not disclosed to Long’s defense counsel. Efforts to locate any biological evidence in 2007 were unsuccessful.