A Jones Day team, along with the Ohio Innocence Project, represented Douglas Prade, a former City of Akron police captain who was convicted of the November 1997 murder of his ex-wife, Dr. Margo Prade, before the Ohio Supreme Court. Dr. Prade, the murder victim, was bitten on her arm by the killer, and the State's case against Mr. Prade in his 1998 trial was based in substantial part on the State's expert forensic dentists' testimony that Mr. Prade made the bite mark on Dr. Prade's arm. Testing of the lab coat that Dr. Prade was wearing in the blood-soaked area over the bite mark in 1998 identified only Dr. Prade's DNA (from her blood) and could not detect any of the killer's DNA. Although significant advances in DNA testing technology since 1998 make it possible that new DNA testing using current methods might identify DNA from the killer, the trial court and intermediate appellate court found that new testing could not be performed because the 1998 DNA tests were "prior definitive tests" that, under Ohio's DNA testing statute, barred new testing. The Ohio Supreme Court disagreed, finding that, on these facts, the 1998 tests were not "prior definitive tests" and, thus, that new DNA testing was not barred by the Ohio DNA testing statute for that reason. Accordingly, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for an assessment of whether other statutory requirements for new DNA testing are satisfied.

State of Ohio v. Douglas Prade, 2010-Ohio-1845, slip op. (Ohio Sup. Ct. May 4, 2010)

Ohio inmate seeks new DNA testing.