A Murder Conviction Torn Apart by a Bullet

Kulbicki's attorneys offered several witnesses who provided an alibi. The defense team also uncovered evidence that the bloody jacket had been worn by Kulbicki's teenage stepson. The stepson denied being involved in the killing.

While Kulbicki's request for a new trial has been pending, a Maryland appeals court recently overturned another murder conviction that relied on the same FBI bullet-matching technique, discrediting it as "not generally accepted" science.

"We all have roles to play in the criminal justice system, and prosecutors ordinarily don't have scientific backgrounds," said Assistant State's Attorney S. Ann Brobst, one of the Kulbicki prosecutors.

"For this office it is troubling and disappointing that we may potentially be faced with the possibility of having to retry a man who we fervently believe is guilty of first-degree murder of an innocent woman because we relied on scientific experts and reputable labs -- in one case, the FBI -- which this office and the public believed to be stellar in terms of reputation."

Prosecutors must convince the courts that the scientific evidence they introduce is deemed reliable by the scientific community. In addition, any information they possess that could assist the defense in proving innocence must be turned over before trial. Coincidentally, the case law that imposed that honor system on prosecutors originated in Kulbicki's home state during the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland.

The long-shot effort to overturn Kulbicki's conviction rests on defense arguments that those rules were violated.

A Different Story

Kulbicki, now 51, was arrested on Jan. 13, 1993, three days after the body of his mistress, Gina Marie Nueslein, was found near a garbage can in Gunpowder Falls State Park in suburban Baltimore. She had been shot in the head, execution-style.

The Baltimore city patrol sergeant had cheated on his wife with Nueslein, had fathered a child with her and was engaged in a contentious paternity dispute with the victim when she was abducted and killed.

The prosecutors had one witness who said that she had seen Kulbicki at the park around the time Nueslein's body was dumped, but she identified Kulbicki after seeing his arrest on TV and not in an independent lineup.

The defense offered testimony from several shopkeepers -- a dry cleaner, a hardware-store owner and a shoe repairman -- as well as Kulbicki's wife, who said that he was half an hour away when Nueslein was killed. The defense used a sales receipt to link Kulbicki to the hardware store.

Kulbicki was found guilty in late 1993, but that conviction was overturned because of concerns that he had not been allowed to fully testify in his defense. He was retried in 1995 and was again convicted.

Kulbicki continued to maintain his innocence, focusing specifically on the prosecution's science. He had an unexpected advocate: the wife he had cheated on stood steadfastly behind him.