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Thirteen years ago, Sedley Alley was executed, convicted of a brutal 1985 rape and murder.

On Monday, a Shelby County judge is expected to consider why DNA from the crime scene should be tested anyway.

Alley’s daughter April Alley filed a petition for the testing this spring.

“April Alley wants to know the truth,” the petition reads. “If her father was innocent, she wants to know who really committed the crime for the sake of everyone involved in this tragic event, and to make sure that person never commits another crime.”

The body of Marine Corps Lance Corporal Suzanne Collins, 19, was found early morning in 1985 in Edmund Orgill Park outside the Millington naval base where she was stationed. An autopsy showed she had been struck at least 100 times and strangled. She had been sexually assaulted and impaled with a tree branch.

Alley initially denied any involvement, but later signed a statement admitting to killing Collins. Details of his statement contradicted the crime scene and autopsy, and a witness’ description of a suspect didn’t match Alley’s physical appearance.

Later, Alley would say he did not remember the crime and that he had been coerced into confessing.

The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office pointed out in a response to the petition that Alley did not contest the validity of his confession until nearly 20 years later, just 30 days before his scheduled execution.

Their response argues that Alley had his day in court many times and that the Tennessee Supreme Court clearly stated that Alley’s guilt “was established at the level of absolute certainty.”

They also argue that the language of post-conviction statutes does not extend to the estates of deceased people. 

“Under this view, litigation, once seemingly without end, would indeed become endless and would also abridge the victim’s rights to a ‘prompt and final conclusion of the case after the conviction or sentence,'” reads the response from the District Attorney General’s Office. 

Although the Tennessee courts denied the request for DNA testing prior to Alley’s execution, a ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court would later open the door for the possibility of items from the crime scene being tested, according to April Alley’s petition. That ruling came five years after Alley was executed by lethal injection.

Her petition asks that 17 items be tested, including men’s underwear found at the crime scene, the victim’s t-shirt, the tree branch, the victim’s shorts and more. The evidence remains in storage in Shelby County. 

April Alley is represented by The Innocence Project, a nonprofit that advocates for DNA testing and criminal justice reform.

After Monday’s hearing, she will be joined in a press conference by three people who were exonerated from death row, including two exonerated by DNA evidence. 

Her petition asks that the DNA on items from the crime scene be compared with preserved samples of her father’s DNA as well as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

She has also written to Gov. Bill Lee, asking him to order the DNA testing and grant a pardon and exoneration to Sedley Alley. 

Katherine Burgess covers county government, religion and the suburbs. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

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