Death row inmate seeks new trial

SEATTLE – The first person convicted in Washington using PCR analysis of DNA – technology that allows tests on tiny biological samples – is seeking a new trial, saying the state made secret deals with jailhouse informants in exchange for their testimony.

Jonathan Lee Gentry has been on Washington’s death row longer than any of its other seven residents. He was convicted in 1991 of bludgeoning 12-year-old Cassie Holden near Bremerton.

During Gentry’s trial, Kitsap County prosecutors presented testimony from three jailhouse informants who said Gentry had incriminated himself. One said Gentry had told fellow prisoners during a card game that the girl had led him on.

A hearing began in federal court Monday on Gentry’s claim that the state failed to disclose payments and other promises it had made to the informants. One informant received thousands of dollars from the state and 45 days off his sentence, Gentry’s lawyers said.

The state not only failed to disclose those deals but also destroyed records concerning the payments, wrote lawyer Scott Engelhard. Gentry’s trial attorneys could have used such information to cast doubt on the testimony, he said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik will decide whether the allegations are true and if so, whether they would have affected the trial.

Pam Loginsky, an attorney representing the state in the appeal, said Monday “there were no deals” and that the most damning evidence was DNA.

Tiny drops of Holden’s blood were found on Gentry’s shoelaces – spots Gentry had missed when he cleaned his shoes after the killing in 1988, she said.

The state also found a hair on Holden’s body. The hair belonged to Gentry’s brother, who was in the Navy and out to sea at the time of the murder. Gentry had been borrowing his clothes, Loginsky said.

The hair and blood samples would be more than sufficient for DNA testing using today’s technology, but at the time, the most common testing was RFLP, which was developed in the 1980s and required much more substantial samples.

Gentry’s case was the first time Washington prosecutors used PCR testing, which can be performed on tiny biological samples but which also is less precise. For example, where RFLP might identify a sample’s owner with one-in-2-million certainty, PCR might give a result of only one in 20,000.