"Officers found the 3-year-old already dead from a stab wound that passed completely through his neck. Charles was still alive but severely injured with knife wounds in her neck and chest, police said. When an officer asked who was responsible for the attack, she said "Preston" and said he tried to rape her. She died moments later.
Authorities went to the apartments and found Hughes, the only resident with that first name. He was on probation for a conviction of sexual assault on a child and denied any role in the attacks.
Hughes lost multiple appeals and lawsuits in courts to block the execution. Two appeals -- filed by attorney Patrick McCann, whom Hughes unsuccessfully sought to fire -- failed at the U.S. Supreme Court.
McCann also obtained an affidavit from a former medical examiner who questioned whether Charles, after massive blood loss from her stab wounds, could have still been conscious or even alive by the time police arrived to ask her about her attacker.
Ellis McCullough, one of Hughes' trial lawyers, said this week he was convinced that no evidence was planted or mishandled.
He said Hughes, brought to a police station for interviews in the early morning after the slayings, made phone calls to acquaintances that "were pretty devastating taken as a whole."
DNA testing after his conviction and at his request showed traces of Charles' blood on Hughes' clothing. At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that her glasses were found on a couch in his apartment."
Yep, he was clearly framed.
Good thing he's gone, but he lived on the government for years in prison.