Now McGinn’s life may be hanging by a tiny fragment of hair–a pubic hair found in the victim’s vagina during autopsy. Some time soon, this crucial piece of evidence will be subjected to mitochondrial DNA testing, a new lab technique. If the test proves the hair was McGinn’s, his execution will be rescheduled and he will likely die later this year. But if the hair is someone else’s, he may escape death and, possibly, get a new trial.
When McGinn was tried, the prosecution theorized that he killed the girl while raping her. Rape was the “aggravating circumstance” that persuaded the jury to impose the death penalty. Brown County District Attorney Lee Haney says McGinn was convicted of killing the girl on a compelling array of evidence that included a roofer’s hammer that bore traces of Stephanie’s blood and was found under a seat in McGinn’s truck. Investigators also found blood in his Ford Escort, a drop of blood on his shoe and another drop on his shorts; all were type A positive, Stephanie’s blood type.
But DNA testing at the time wasn’t able to identify the pubic hair (prosecutors said it was “microscopically similar” to McGinn’s) or to find DNA in a possible semen stain on Stephanie’s shorts. The mitochondrial DNA testing will probably identify the hair, and another new DNA-analysis technique, known as STR (for short-tandem repeat) testing, may identify the semen.
McGinn still insists he was framed. He points out that the bloody hammer wasn’t found during repeated searches of his truck by sheriff’s deputies, implying that it was planted, and he cites a trial witness who said Stephanie’s body wasn’t in a culvert at a time when the authorities said it should have been there. He says testimony about the approximate time of death eliminates him as a suspect because he was already in custody. He also denies that he sexually abused his stepdaughter. “My wife kept me satisfied,” he says. “I didn’t need to go anywhere else, especially a 12-year-old girl.” Those are hardly comforting words, but now McGinn will have a chance–and by law at least 61 days–to try to prove the rest of the evidence wrong.
