Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota on Tuesday ordered that one of two documents apparently related to post-conviction DNA testing performed in the Dana Ireland murder case be unsealed and made public.
Judges for Justice, a Seattle-based organization, sought the release of the document, sealed in 2007 by since-retired Circuit Judge Glenn Hara, as well as a 2009 document, also sealed.
The group believes three men — Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, his younger brother, Shawn Schweitzer, and Frank Pauline — were wrongfully convicted of Ireland’s 1991 abduction, rape and murder in lower Puna.
The Hawaii Innocence Project and the New York Innocence Project, both representing Ian Schweitzer — who has been incarcerated for more than two decades — are attempting to exonerate him.
Both groups opposed the documents’ release and said the documents’ confidentiality are essential to a collaborative investigation into Schweitzer’s case conducted jointly by the Innocence Project organizations and the Hawaii County prosecutor’s office.
Ian Schweitzer is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 130 years in prison.
Shawn Schweitzer, who was 16 when the crime occurred, became a witness for the state and was sentenced to five years of probation and a year in jail, which had already been served, for manslaughter.
Pauline was killed by a rock-wielding assailant in a New Mexico prison on his 42nd birthday. His 2015 slaying occurred a day after the Tribune-Herald reported the Hawaii Innocence Project had taken up the case of Ian Schweitzer and had post-conviction DNA testing performed on evidence.
Both sides argued their positions concerning the documents in a contentious hearing on June 21, in which Schweitzer’s attorneys repeated their claim that Judges for Justice’s leader, retired Seattle judge Mike Heavey, was interfering in their attempts to overturn Schweitzer’s conviction in the murder of the 22-year-old Ireland.
The 2007 document released Monday is an agreement between prosecutors and the Hawaii Innocence Project that certain pieces of evidence would be sent ReliaGene Technologies for DNA testing.
Those items include: a “rape kit” collected at Hilo Hospital; the blood-stained hospital sheet from the gurney used to wheel Ireland into surgery; the blue Jimmy Z T-shirt multiple witnesses said belonged to Pauline; Ireland’s panties; and red underwear collected at the crime scene in Waa Waa, lower Puna.
“The 2009 stipulation has certain matters that the attorneys believe must remain confidential at this point in time, and will be released at a certain period of the future,” Kubota said.
He added that the Innocence Projects and prosecutors “explained to me the ongoing investigation that is being diligently worked upon in cooperation to test the conviction integrity.”
Kubota — who said on June 21 that neither document contains the results of DNA testing performed on Ireland case evidence — scheduled a closed hearing on Aug. 3 with prosecutors and Ian Schweitzer’s lawyers concerning the contents of the 2009 document.
He said the purpose of the confidential hearing is “to put evidence in this record in case this matter is appealed.”
The judge set a public hearing at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 10 to make his ruling — whether to keep the 2009 document sealed, release it in its entirety, or release a redacted version to the public.
“I thought the judge was heading in the right direction, according to the law. I was very impressed,” Heavey told the Tribune-Herald after the hearing.
“Let me say that I couch terms,” Heavey said about the documents. “We believed it may contain DNA testing. Why? Because we know of a Dec. 21, 2007, DNA test. We thought, ‘Well, maybe that is in the file.’ Also, the title for the 2009 document says ‘DNA testing results.’ So we thought, maybe there’s DNA testing results there.
Heavey said if unsealing the 2009 document would negatively impact the process of testing the conviction integrity in the Ireland case, Judges for Justice doesn’t want the document released.
“What we’re about is educating the public about three wrongful convictions — and that there’s a killer still out there,” he said.
A call by the Tribune-Herald to Hawaii Innocence Project executive director Ken Lawson wasn’t returned in time for this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.