In 1983, O’Dell and the victim separately left a Virginia Beach bar. Two hours later, O’Dell appeared at a convenience store with blood on his face, hands, and clothes. The victim’s body was found the next day. She had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and strangled.
O’Dell was arrested on a tip from a woman with whom he was living and his conviction rested primarily on the blood on his clothes, which matched the victim’s blood type.
At the time, O’Dell was on parole for a Florida kidnapping and robbery in which the victim had alleged that he tried to rape her.
In 1990, rudimentary DNA testing established that the blood on O’Dell’s clothes was not the victim’s. Later, after DNA testing became more sophisticated, O’Dell sought testing of the bodily fluids recovered from the victim.
The testing had the potential of excluding O’Dell as the rapist, but O’Dell’s request was denied even though, unless it proved exculpatory, it would not have delayed the execution and would have cost the state nothing.
After the execution, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond sought to have the evidence tested. The state objected, asserting that if the results indicated O’Dell had not raped the woman, “it would be shouted from the rooftops that the Commonwealth of Virginia executed an innocent man.” The request was denied, and the evidence was destroyed.
