Editorial: Pursuing justice in Ireland killing

Nobody who lived in Hawaii during the tragic case of Dana Ireland can forget the horror of her rape and murder.

Ireland was a 23-year old Virginia woman who was celebrating the holidays in 1991 while visiting Hawaii island when, on Christmas Eve, she was run down on her bike, brutally assaulted and slain in Puna. The investigation did not yield a conviction for nine years.

Three men, all of Native Hawaiian ancestry, were ultimately convicted. On Tuesday, the last man remaining in prison for the heinous killing was freed, exonerated by new genetic evidence indicating he did not commit the crime.

It was a stunning development in a saga that, viewed with the benefit of hindsight, demonstrates the difficulties inherent in criminal prosecution — and the virtue of advocates willing to fight for justice.

The review of the case led 3rd Circuit Court Judge Peter K. Kubota to vacate the murder conviction of Albert “Ian” Schweitzer, 51, who had spent 23 years in prison. In the Hilo courtroom there was jubilant applause and hugs for Schweitzer, who had been flown in for the hearing from a Hawaii-contracted Arizona prison.

Schweitzer’s brother, Shawn, in a plea agreement had implicated his brother in return for a reduced charge of manslaughter and kidnapping. Also imprisoned was the Schweitzers’ half-brother, Frank Pauline Jr., who was serving time when a fellow inmate killed him in 2015.

An additional factor in this complex case was the victim’s parents, who were traumatized by the tragic loss of their young daughter and frustrated by the serpentine twists and turns of the investigation. Surely the fact that this young and pretty tourist lost her life in a brutal crime, compounded when emergency crews arrived too late to save her, added to the heartbreak — and to the pressure on the prosecution to solve the mystery.

But like most mysteries, this one had conflicting clues, misdirection and limitations of technology; DNA analysis has vastly improved in the intervening decades since the 2000 verdicts were handed down.

It was these improvements that led the Innocence Project to pursue a reversal for Ian Schweitzer. In fact, the integrity of the DNA test results were already in question; scientific testimony at the time indicated that the semen retrieved in evidence hinted at the existence of an unknown, fourth attacker.

Despite the murky circumstances, the convictions were concluded anyway. Another complication over the course of the case included a lie-detector test that seemed to uphold Shawn Schweitzer’s testimony implicating his brother and Pauline.

Kenneth Lawson is co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, the local branch of a national organization seeking to correct injustices in criminal prosecution. In one of his statements on Tuesday, he cited the fact that Ireland was white and female — “it gets a lot more attention than people of color and Native Hawaiians” — as adding to the pressure to solve the case.

“And when that happens,” he added, “mistakes are made, some intentional and some unintentional.”

That’s hard to deny, given the sensitivity around tourists being attacked, especially in a case with racial overtones. Hawaii does have some history of race being an issue in criminal prosecution, although likely less so in recent years than in some other communities.

That is why organizations such as the Innocence Project play a crucial role, and why the criminal justice system needs oversight to ensure technology is deployed to its highest and best use.

The Ireland family is still bereft, and every effort must be made to find the actual killer.

And the hope is that Schweitzer himself will follow Kubota’s advice to focus not “on the anger and resentment” about a flawed system, but on living the best life he can as a free man.