23 years later and still no closure in Abbie Sue Mullinax murder case

Ernest Riddle is shown here during a hearing held earlier this year. Defense attorneys for accused murderer Ernest Riddle filed demands recently in Cherokee County General Sessions Court for prosecutors to turn over a raft of information they claim has never before been seen by Riddle's legal advocates in the history of the 23- year-old murder case.

Among them are the results of specific witness polygraph tests and the polygraph test questions, as well as any and all police notes of interviews with several witnesses they claim cast serious doubt on the identity of Riddle as the killer.

Riddle originally was convicted and sentenced to death for the Aug. 8, 1985 murder of Abbie Sue Mullinax inside her home at 205 Concord Ave. in Gaffney. Riddle and his brother Jason had been accused of breaking into the grandmother's home for a burglary. When Mullinax awoke to investigate a noise, and screamed when she saw intruders, Ernest Riddle allegedly killed her with a knife he found in her kitchen.

Ernest Riddle's death sentence was twice overturned and reinstated, however, until a 2006 South Carolina Supreme Court ruling overturned his conviction altogether on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

In their latest legal filing, Riddle's defense attorneys wrote that much new information has come to light since the original trial that, in their minds, calls the identity of Riddle as the killer into serious question.

"We know enough now to know that the State has always had much more evidence concerning the death of Mrs. Mullinax," they wrote in their demand for prosecutors to turn over a long list of reports, notes and other documents allegedly in their possession. "Ernest Riddle requests all of it."

Among the many defense contentions of evidence and information that had been withheld over the years was the allegation that police bloodhounds had led investigators in a different direction from the crime scene than the route testified to by Jason Riddle.

Jason Riddle and his brother Bruce initially testified against Ernest. But Jason, who is serving a life sentence for murder, has since recanted his testimony and both brothers allegedly are refusing to participate in a future retrial of Ernest.

Circuit Judge Cordell Maddox Jr., who is presiding over Ernest Riddle's case, is expected to address the testimony of Jason and Bruce at an upcoming hearing, though a date for such a hearing wasn't set as of last Friday.

The bloodhounds allegedly led police from the crime scene to two different homes on Birch Street, where three people, one of them bleeding, pounded on doors to be let inside shortly after the time of Mullinax's murder.

Defense attorneys claim they now know the identity of all three people on the porches that night and the one name which had eluded them was that of the younger brother of a main prosecution witness. His name was mentioned in an initial statement, they allege, but it disappeared from statements and testimony after that.

Judge Maddox has not yet issued any rulings on defense requests for the charges to be dismissed outright. If the case proceeds to a retrial, it likely won't happen until at least February 2009.