“DELAWARE COUNTY, Iowa (KWWL) — The man convicted of killing his wife with a corn rake in Delaware County wants a new trial. A life sentence from 2020 is now under question after lawyers for Todd Mullis filed for a post-conviction relief on Thursday.
Prosecutors alleged that Mullis killed his wife by hitting her several times with a corn rake in 2018 because she was cheating on him. However, Mullis’s attorneys say that the investigation was filled with holes and assumptions. They say that his representation at the time didn’t do enough to argue against it.
The post-conviction release application has several documents attached, including reports from expert witnesses that performed their own forensic investigation into the case. This includes testimony from several key witnesses, including the first paramedic on scene and Mullis’s 13-year-old son.
Together, the documents describe a flawed investigation from the start, implying that it was full of bias. The prosecutor on the case, John Bernau, admitted to KWWL in 2020 that he was close friends to the victim. However, he refused to excuse himself from the case.
One of the documents that will be key in the post-conviction relief request is the deposition of Mullis’s former representation.
In it, they admit that they failed to consult with any expert during the trial or hire a private investigator to look into the facts for themselves. He even admits that he refused to listen to his client and call the incident an accident.
Among those documents was testimony from the Mullis couple’s oldest son, who was working with his parents on the farm the day that the alleged murder took place.
This is not an appeal, although it can result in a new trial. The state will have 30 days to reply to the post-conviction relief request before a judge evaluates the evidence. Then, they would decide whether a new trial should be held or if the case should be dismissed entirely.”
Mullis attorney reveal’s alleged mistakes of the medical examiner on the case
Content from KWWL article: https://www.kwwl.com/news/crime-courts/delaware-county-murder-sentence-under-question-with-new-post-conviction-relief-request/article_3d72ed44-d4b4-11ed-a9e5-13c7fb46bf96.html