and that was edward lee elmore.even more surprising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. >> diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway's front door. >> mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted me. that was one of the toughest moments in my career of not reacting. holy -- he also told me that law enforcement suspected him because all of the neighbors had told law enforcement that he and dorothy had been having an af

and that was edward lee elmore.> even more surprising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. >> diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway's front door. >> mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted me. that was one of the toughest moments in my career of not reacting. holy -- he also told me that law enforcement suspected him because all of the neighbors had told law enforcement that he and dorothy had been having an

and that was edward lee elmore.> even more surprising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. >> diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway's front door. >> mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and she he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted me. that was one of the toughest moments in my career of not reacting. holy -- he also told me that law enforcement suspected him because all of the neighbors had told law enforcement that he and dorothy had been having

and the state department of special needs finds that edward lee elmore is mentally retarded. >> elmore'swas commuted to life in prison. after nearly 28 years, elmore was finally leaving death row. [ screaming ] >> sorry, that's exactly what i did. i get mr. elmore on the phone. i say hey, you're going to be leaving death row. i'm not going to die? no, well, not there. >> elmore's life had been spared. but diana hadn't fought for years to see elmore die behind bars. her team had one last hope to get him a new trial. the u.s. 4th circuit court of appeals would be the highest court ever to hear elmore's case. >> the 4th circuit has the reputation of being the most conservative federal appellate court in the country. so we felt our chances of prevailing were very slight. >> in yet another face-off with donald zelenka, the court's circuit three-judge panel heard oral arguments in september of 2010, and remarkably, they came down hard on zelenka. >> the time of death, we were locking it down because the defendant was seen at 9:30 headed that direction. >> locking down the time of death based o

one of her first assignments was reviewing elmore's case. >> the first time i saw the name, edward lee elmore i was reading through a transcript. >> diana started having suspicions that elmore's trials weren't fair. she was troubled that elmore's defense attorney didn't call any expert witnesses and rarely challenged any of the prosecution's evidence. diana knew that an incompetent defense was grounds for an appeal. >> i felt like there was something wrong. i needed to meet eddie. and give him an eyeball up and down, size him up. >> and who she met wasn't what she expected. >> edward and diana's story will be featured in the first episode of cnn's upcoming series "death row stories." which premieres tonight at 9:00 eastern. they join me now from columbia, south carolina. and diana, i want to start with you. you looked at the evidence and it just simply didn't make sense. there were things that had been overlooked. tell me what those things were. >> they weren't overlooked. they were never going to look at these things. because they decided that mr. elmore was guilty on the same day the victim

and that was edward lee elmore.ising was that the police allowed holloway, a possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence watching what happened. there was no preservation of the crime scene. >> diana needed answers so she drove 90 miles to greenwood, south carolina, and showed up unannounced at james holloway's front door. >> mrs. holloway answered the door. she led me into the den and he was sitting on his big overstuffed recliner. so i introduced myself, and he proceeded to tell me, well, you know, really, the only one who could kill her and get away with it was me, the way she trusted possible suspect, to clean the crime scene the day after dorothy's body was found. >> law enforcement turned the crime scene over to jimmy holloway to clean up. he could do whatever he wanted in there. there was no law enforcement presence

"death row stories, edward lee elmore" starts right now. >>> on this episode of "death row stories," murdered. >> blood spatter on the walls. the scene was just unbelievable. >> and a black man is arrested. >> his fingerprint was found. there were a number of hairs on the victim's bed.