David Dawson was sentenced to die for the
December 1, 1986 murder of Madeline Marie Kisner of Kenton while
burglarizing her home.
Madeline was a 45-year-old bookkeeper and was
stabbed to death by Dawson and a couple other inmates who had
escaped from Delaware Correctional Institution near Smyrna a few
days earlier. Some of the escapees were found in Arizona.
Dawson, who was originally condemned in 1988 to
die for the murder, had his sentence vacated in 1992 by the high
court because prosecutors wrongly introduced his membership in the
Aryan Brotherhood as evidence in his penalty hearing.
David Dawson reveals the details of his case in
his own words. David says that he was not the killer.
I'm always reading about people, spending years
on death row, until they find someone who cares enough to prove
their innocence by having a DNA test done despite the evidence that
convicted them. Maybe I'm missing something, is this DNA test just
for other states and not Delaware? I have concerns with lawyers.
The
lawyers usually use their legal issues to get new penalty hearings
and I can understand the lawyers concern to have our lives saved,
but they just don't realize when a person is innocent. A new penalty
hearing is still a lost battle. To an inmate, even if he is given a
life sentence, it still feels like being on death row.
Is there anyone with the power to help me? I've
watched friends on death row fight and they are dragged to their
death and if you can get someone to hear my voice, please who ever
you can get to hear me, help me. I don't want to die. I don't agree
with lying . . . I am pretty much alone when it comes to my case.
My
story begins when three other inmates, Larry Nave, Mark McCoy, and
Richard Irwin, escaped along with me on December 2, 1986. I was
caught still wearing the prison clothes. I was charged with first
degree murder. The victim was stabbed twelve times.
The prosecutor
said that I acted alone. At the murder scene, a head hair was found
on the victim's chest and a pubic hair was found underneath the
victim's fingernail. DNA testing was done and it proved that these
two hairs didn't belong to the victim or the family and they also
proved not to belong to me, David Dawson. I don't want to be
convicted and sentenced to death.
The prosecutor gave their star witness, Kathy
Nave, the sister of Larry Nave, a pardon for perjury. In 1986, Kathy
Nave gave a statement on a cassette tape that said she had not been
involved with helping the escapees afier we escaped. She swore to
God on this tape, a number of times, that she told the truth.
The
week or so before trial, Kathy Nave, gave a different testimony than
the one on tape and she swore to God this statement is the truth. By
law, when there are two conflicting statements, it's perjury and it
doesn't matter which one is the truth or a lie. If these statements
were turned around and in favor of the defendant, the prosecutor
wouldn't allow a witness to change their statement or the defense
would seek perjury charges. I'm not allowed to seek perjury charges
because the prosecutor has given a pardon to Kathy.
At the first trial, a police officer testified
that the head hair was tested against the other three escapees and
that it didn't match and so they assume the pubic hair wouldn't
match either, so they didn't bother to test it. They never showed
any documents showing when they came to get the hair sample from the
three other escapees, nor did they show any results of testing the
hair against these three men.
I have the FBI results of those tests
with me. These three other men went to trial on different charges
that took place on December 2, 1986. They were caught two or three
weeks later.
The murder weapon was never found and the knives that
were found on these three men were never tested to see if one of
those knives had been the murder weapon. I went to trial in 1988,
and my lawyer raised the issue of the knives not being tested.
The
prosecutor told the court that the knives had either been stolen or
disposed of and felt there was no need in testing the knives because
the State claims that I, David Dawson, acted alone.
If they felt
that strongly about not testing those knives, then why did they
claim they had tested the head hair against those three men? I had a
Rule 16 hearing around or about 1996-97. The police officer claims
there was no testing of that head hair against those three men.
When we escaped, we stole a car by hot wiring it.
It broke down a couple of miles from the prison. While the three
others went to make a phone call at a pay phone, I was looking for
another car to steal.
A gas station attendant saw these three men at
the payphone. Larry Nave was the only one who made a phone call. He
called his sister, Kathy Nave, and she refused to come pick us up.
We decided it would be best to back track, because we left the
stolen car on the main highway and it wouldn't be long before they
found it and would figure we were still heading North. Once we got
back to where we started from, in the town of Smyrna Del, we stole
another car with the keys in it. We ditched the car on a back road
and went on foot.
While we were resting in a wooded area behind a
couple of houses, I decided to go by myself to see if I could get in
one of the houses. I stole five or six pocket watches, coins and a
black leather jacket.
The only reason I took the jacket was because
it had pockets with zippers and if we had to run, I wouldn't lose
any of the items I had taken and I was the only one who wasn't
wearing a prison coat. We ended up in another wooded area beside one
house.
There was a car and pick-up truck at this house. I figured
that since I was wearing the leather jacket and a leather hat, that
I had while in prison, I would go to the house and knock on the
doors. When no one answered, I started to look for a way into the
house.
When I came to the back of the house, the lady of the house
was standing in the kitchen. I asked her if I could use the phone.
She opened the sliding glass door just enough to hand the phone to
me. I tried to call an old girlfriend and when I couldn't get an
answer,
I handed the phone back and forced the sliding glass door
open with my right hand and ran inside the house and grabbed the
lady by the hair. I told her who I was and that I wasn't going to
harm her. I just wanted the keys to the car and some money.
She
asked where the others were. I told her they were outside in the
woods. She led the way to the bedroom and gave me a glass, half full
of coins. I told her I would have to tie her hands so that we could
get away and to wait until she felt that we were far away before she
called the cops.
After her hands were tied, she sat on the edge of
the bed. I asked her what town I was in and she said "Kenton." After
a couple more questions, I saw fear come all over her face.
She was
looking toward the bedroom door. I looked and the other three guys
were standing there. One of them asked if I knew where we were and I
told them the name of the town and that there was a store right down
the road where we could fill the car up with gas and get anything
else we needed.
Someone wanted to know what to do with the lady and
I told them that she was tied up pretty good and to leave her alone.
Finally, we decided that I would go and fill the car with gas while
they tied her feet to the bed. We were afraid that if we all went to
get the gas someone might see and recognize us and call the police.
I remember hanging around this area years ago and I thought someone
might have known me and then I thought, the house isn't that far
from this store and someone may notice the car.
I decided to go
somewhere else, so I went to a town called Camden. When I got back
to the house, the others weren't there. I found the lady dead on her
bed. She had been stabbed and there was blood everywhere. Her
bathrobe was pulled open and one of her breasts was showing.
The
bottom of her bathrobe was pulled up and she wasn't wearing any
underwear. I pulled her bathrobe down to cover what was showing. I
walked beside the bed and I looked down at her, my legs gave out and
I started crying and when I looked at her I told her, "I am really
sorry lady." I should have never left her with them.
I left and went to see if I could find them
walking down the road. I went to the end of the road and they were
nowhere to be found. I then thought that I need to get something to
drink and to figure out what to do, but I couldn't get my act
together.
All I could do was drink and I kept seeing that lady
laying there the way I found her. All the plans I had for escaping
were no longer in my head. I had given a handwritten statement of
what happened and in that statement I mentioned an attempt of rape
on this lady.
The reason that I gave that statement was because of
the way that I found her, with her bathrobe pulled up. I felt that
the others had raped her, but I had pulled her bathrobe down and I
didn't attempt to rape her and I wanted them to check to see if she
had been raped.
I knew if she had, they would find out I wasn't the
one who raped her, but one, or two, or all three of the others.
That's what happened on December 1, 1986. I pray for help every day
and I thank you so much for listening to my story.
David Dawson
