Former death-row inmate files amended lawsuit

Both sides in a federal lawsuit over an alleged wrongful conviction case claim the higher ground after recent rulings from the judge.

Curtis Edward McCarty is suing Oklahoma City, current Police Chief Bill Citty and former police forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist for violation of his constitutional rights. McCarty spent more than two decades in prison " 19 of those years on death row " before a judge tossed out the murder charges last year. McCarty is suing for damages and accusing the defendants of conspiring to convict him by falsifying and destroying evidence.

McCarty filed the suit last December, but U.S. District Judge Robin J. Cauthron dismissed it in February by agreeing with the defendants that the statute of limitations had expired before McCarty submitted the case.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals vacated McCarty's murder conviction and death sentence in 2005 based on the faulty work of Gilchrist. Cauthron believed that is when the two-year time limit on filing a suit started. McCarty was released from jail in May 2007.

AMENDING
Two months after Cauthron's February ruling to dismiss the case, McCarty asked the judge to withdraw the earlier decision and allow the case to move forward under an amended lawsuit. She agreed.

"There is a sufficient allegation in the complaint of a conspiracy that was ongoing past the statute of limitations," said McCarty's attorney, Tom Seymour. "In case you (judge) don't think it's clear enough, well fine. We'll say it a little louder, which we did in the amended complaint, so the case is now proceeding."

In the new ruling, Cauthron wrote, "The proposed amended complaint raises allegations, which, if proven, could establish constitutional violations occurred or continued after the (appeals court) issued its opinion. "¦ Consequently, the proposed amended complaint raises issues which may not be time-barred." "Scott Cooper

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