Ronnie Lee Bowling
# 32861
Death Row
Cell No. 6-G-2
Kentucky State Penitentiary
P.O.Box 5128
Eddyville, KY 42038
USA
DOB 12-5-1968
(Death Row)
THE CASE
Case No: 89-CR-00024
Date of the Crime: January 20, 1989 and February 22, 1989
Date of Conviction: December 9, 1992
sentenced to two death sentences by electrocution and 100 years
for two counts of burglary, two counts of robbery, two counts of murder, and one count of attempted murder
I am Ronnie Lee Bowling on Kentucky death row. Here is how I got here.
February 25th, 1989, I was arrested. I have been in ever since.
I just turned 20 years old at the time of the arrest. I had no criminal record. I have never been in prison before. I came from a good home, raised up in a good family. I graduated high school in 1987. I married my high school sweetheart on June 21st, 1987. I worked part time jobs. I was working three part time jobs at the same time. I was working for my Dad in his appliance store. I was working for a grocery store called "Wim-Dixie" and I was working for "C.A.P." (Christian Appalachian Project). All three were part time and minimum wage.
So, I was looking for a full-time job. I put in applications all over.
On February 25th, 1989, Saturday morning:
I drove two counties over from Clay County (where I lived) to Rockcastle County. The purpose was to put in applications and try to find a full-time job. So, I started early. Knowing most businesses would be open when I would work my way back home.
I exit off I-15, see a store type gas station. I pull in, get out, go in. A man in there named Ricky Smith. He is the owner. I ask him, if he is doing any hiring. He said, "No, not right now. Maybe later in the year. Check back with me." I said, "Ok. What about hiring on other shifts?" At this time he begins to become very nervous. So, I thanked him for his time.
As I start out the door of the store, I pause to zip up my coat. I had a green field jacket on. It is February, still had drifts of snow on the ground. I glance out of the corner of my eye. He has pulled a .38 out of his overall pocket. He takes off running into the next small joining room. He is continually firing his .38 revolver. He hits me twice. There is blood and hair on the wall and floor from where he shot me. I run out and get in my car. He comes out of the store. I go down the Road 25.
It placed his gas pumps between him and me in my car. Gave me time to build up speed. He continued to shoot as I was going down the road. He realizes he was nervous and over reacted. I did not have a gun. He mistook my zipping my coat. He thought I was pulling a gun. It all happened in the blink of an eye. He knows he has just shot an innocent man. He sees my blood in his store. His Dad - James Smith - soon arrives on the scene. He and James realize Ricky could be the one to be charged with "attempted murder" even "murder", if I died.
Ricky has another .38 either under his counter or his Dad has one. They use the 2nd .38 to fire extra bullets into the store to make it look like an exchange of fire. Then Ricky calls State Police. They arrest me at my home. Later I am charged with "attempted murder" of Ricky Smith. Then about one week later, they have two unsolved crimes in a joining county called Laurel County. Through forensics-metallurgy they charge me with these capital charges. The prosecutor presents this flawed, unreliable "junk science" to the jury - almost four years later and gets a conviction in 1992 in Laurel County. Same prosecutor sets a conviction in Rockcastle County in 1996. I have been down here on death row appealing ever since.
IIPPI: What is the "Bullet" article about, if you, Ronnie Lee Bowling, did not have a gun?
In order to answer this question, I shall give you some history of the case.
Ricky Smith started to shoot at me. I get hit in the side of the head. Go down to one knee. He runs and jumps into the little room that joins the room where we were standing. He continues to shoot. I stand up and run out to my car. Get in it. Back out. I see this guy still coming out of his store with a gun in his hand. I figured this guy will continue to shoot. So, I see the gas pumps between he and I. Figured he probably would not shoot at his gas pumps. I was right. It gave me just enough time to build some speed up on my car going down the road in front of his store.
And sure enough about the time I passed his gas pumps exposing my car he continued to shoot. I just kept going at high speed away from his shooting at me. I kept going fast, because I did not know, if this crazy guy would try to follow me and shoot at me.
Next thing I realize, I have been shot twice! Once in the side of the head and once in the hand. I am just a kid back then. Never been through anything even remotely similar to that. I saw all the blood on the left side of my face and on my hand. I had a .38 lead bullet in the side of my head from Ricky Smith's gun.
IIPPI: One moment, why did not you head to the next hospital?
I barely was able to see out of my left eye. Remember, back then I was young barely turning 20 years old. I panick. I like blacked out. I mean, I could still see and hear everything. But, I only had one thought on my mind, "Get home to my wife before I die. Get home to my wife before I die. Get home to my wife before I die. She can take me to the emergency room. I do not know the area. I do not know where any hospitals are at. But, I will get home to my wife before I die." This is all I could see and think. Police were behind me. I could not think nothing except, "Get home to my wife before I die."
During my trial I ask the court for funds to hire a neuro-psychologist to help explain this reaction. They would not give me the money to hire this expert.
I did make it home. They arrested me in my front yard. I did see my wife. She was standing in the window.
IIPPI: Did the police take care of your injuries? Did they take you to a hospital?
They brought me back to the Laurel County (London, KY) State Police Post 11. They interrogated me. First with a written statement. All this is with a lead bullet in the side of my head and blood gushing. So much blood they gave me a paper towel to hold up to my head to slow the blood. Finally they take me to the emergency room at London, KY called Marymounty Hospital. They remove a .38 lead bullet from my left side head. Stitch me up really rough. Do not give me anything to numb it or for pain. Take me back to the State Police Post 11 and further interrogate me. This time with a cassette tape recorder. I gave a second statement. The statements I gave are the same. They are the same as all that I have written to you about.
IIPPI: Okay, I see. Let's go back to the bullet issue...
It turns out the guy that shot me, he and his Dad Mr. James Smith, came up with a plan to keep Ricky Smith from being charged with attempted murder or murder or manslaughter, if I died. See, he realized after it was all over that he made a mistake that I did NOT have a gun. When I went to zip up my field jacket, he thought I was pulling a gun out. He started shooting. It all happened within a split second. His dad is near by. He shortly arrives at Ricky Smith's store.
The reason Ricky and James went to packing .38's a couple of gas station attendants over in a joining county where allegedly robbed and murdered. They were very paranoid. Nervous of any person they did not know. This is why Ricky Smith kept his hand in his pocket and his hand on it the entire time.
It turned out one of the people that was robbed and killed in Laurel County was a minister that lived in Rockcastle County very close to Ricky Smith. The church where many in that area had attended. So, all of them knew about the alleged crimes and were very armed.
Between Ricky Smith and his Dad, James Smith, they took the extra .38 of James or the .38 Ricky Smith kept under his counter and fired extra shots into the station to make it look like an exchange of gunfire. While Ricky Smith calls the Kentucky State Police at London, KY (Laurel County), they are on the way on the direction that Ricky Smith goes a couple of miles down the road from the gas station and tosses out the .38 he used to fire dummy shots into his son's store. All to make it look like I fired at Ricky. So, if I died they would not be charged with murder. Because there was blood and hair all over the store (FROM ME), they knew I was shot in the head. They knew Ricky had overreacted. Trying to cover it up.
The police after they arrest me go back over to Rockcastle County and had all the locals including Ricky and James their family and friends looking for a gun. At trial it is on record. No police officer once they intercepted my vehicle ever saw anything come from my vehicle. They testified they never lost sight of my vehicle. A state trooper records the serial numbers of this alleged gun they say they found on the road side. The gun they say they found on the road side was replaced with another gun. This other gun has a completely different set of serial numbers than the gun that they say they found on the roadside. This is all brought out at my trial. Where is that gun they say they found on the side of the road?? They replaced it with the .38 they said is linked to two robbery murders in Laurel County.
In order to make sure I am really set up as the perfect scapegoat. The first was Ricky Smith and his Dad James Smith set it up to give Ricky a cover story for shooting and could have killed me. Then the police and somebody already had the .38 they say was used in Laurel County crimes and replaced it with the .38 they found on the roadside. We know this for a fact, because of the two complete different sets of serial numbers. The one gun they said they found on the side of the road was never heard of anymore.
So, they know "ballistics". This is the marks and grooves on a bullet when it is fired. They say this is so unique that any bullet and firearm can be linked as unique as a set of fingerprints. But, they made sure all the lead bullets over in Rockcastle County were destroyed so bad that they could not be ballistically tested. It would clearly show the .38 they used to replace the .38 Ricky/ James Smith placed on the roadside is not the weapon that fired those bullets. So, they made sure all the lead bullets were destroyed.
They have a guy name of Mr. Donald Havekost (retired now), FBI agent that worked for "FBI Crime Laboratory" in Washington D.C. He had testified at numerous trials for the local and others. He was their close associate.
They had another test done on the lead bullets called "metallurgy" test. This is where they test the metal composition in one set of lead bullets to see, if the same metal composition is found in another set of lead bullets.
Well, this flawed, unreliable junk-science is what Havekost testified to at my trial for the prosecution and mislead the jury and gained a wrongful-conviction. The prosecutor convinced the jury the metallurgy in the destroyed lead bullets found in two bodies in Laurel County were the same. They convicted me on these lies and deception.
Turns out they figured I would have already be executed by now, because the FBI had received so much criticism over these lead bullet test and the conflicting "experts" that testify at trial. "Mr. Z" could hire five "experts" in metallurgy to say what he wants. Then "Mr. Y" goes out and hires ten "experts" in metallurgy to say what he wants in metallurgy --- all on the same subject. So conflicting, costing people their lives on death row on this flawed, unreliable junk-science.
What "DNA" is to blood, "CBLA" is to bullets. This is the result of the criticism. The FBI went to the most renowned group of scientists in the world, "National Research Council" (NRC) and asked them to go over these methods used to test lead bullets and tell them whether they are sound or not. They did. Published a book-sized report on February 10th, 2004 and said "not". The FBI took this as a recommendation and conducted their own 14 months study. September 1st, 2005, Thursday, released their memo an agreed with NRC and stopped all testing of lead bullets.
Since this is the primary heart to the case the prosecutor used to convict me of capital cases in Laurel County, and with this "newly discovered evidence" of the NRC report and the memo of FBI I have filed pro se and asking the trial court at Laurel County (where I received the death sentences) to give me a new trial.
All the paperwork is filed and done. I taught myself how to file it and I did. This is new evidence the reports that clearly show the flawed, unreliable junk-science the prosecutor used to mislead the jury to gain a wrongful-conviction is unjust and wrong.
The "Bullet" article I sent you explains this further. How junk-science was used to form a link between the Rockcastle case and the Laurel cases. I am innocent. The prosecutor relied on lies and deception to gain a wrongful-conviction. They knew they had found a perfect scapegoat when they heard about the Rockcastle County store/ gas station get all the political pressure off them to find and convict someone of the capital crimes in Laurel County. Election was close. This helped to get some elected.
The FBI Crime Laboratory at Washington D.C. said they have completely stopped testing lead bullets in metallurgy, because it could very easily send an innocent man to death. They issued letters to over 300 police labs letting them know they no longer do lead bullet testing. Also suggested the courts to re-visit old cases of people where the prosecutor used these lead bullet tests to help get a jury to convict the person.
Most people assume when a lawyer is on a case all is well. It is not well. I am on my own.
I do have the evidence needed to prove my innocence, but I need the chance to be heard in court!
I need people who campaign on my behalf.
