Grand Rapids, MI: David Duyst continues to appeal conviction from wife's murder

Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:27 AM Updated: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:29 AM
By Nate Reens | The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS – Convicted killer David Duyst is taking another shot at freedom, hoping this time that a federal appeals court will order a new trial despite a judge's recent ruling denying the same request.
The appeal is expected to drag out the 2000 murder of Sandra Duyst, the suspect's wife, at least another year and possibly two.
Duyst, 51, was convicted of shooting his wife twice in the head with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun as she lay in bed.
Authorities initially ruled the death a suicide until an autopsy found two bullet wounds to the 40-year-old woman.
Duyst, a prominent Grand Rapids insurance salesman at the time of his wife's death, has repeatedly professed his innocence. He claims that the weapon malfunctioned, causing it to shoot twice, when his wife decided to take her own life.
Authorities said the slaying was motivated by Duyst's infidelity, financial problems and a recent half-million-dollar life insurance policy on Sandra Duyst's life.
Lawyers for Duyst say his trial attorney was ineffective for not challenging ballistics evidence, blood spatter testimony and the admissibility of a letter in which Sandra Duyst said if she died to look at her husband.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts in a ruling issued last month found that the attorney, David Dodge, properly considered each defense scenario. Roberts had granted Duyst an evidentiary hearing to determine if she should order a new trial.
Duyst called the opinion devastating but said that he and his family will go to the U.S. Sixth Circuit of Appeals to try again.
This time, Duyst wrote in a letter to supporters, “it's really all or nothing,” as the U.S. Supreme Court is highly unlikely to hear his case.
“We recognize that the possibility of winning there is slim, but we feel it is worth the effort and expense,” Duyst wrote in a letter to The Press. “ It is indeed unfortunate that the criminal justice system in general and the appellate system in particular is so stacked against the accused.”
Duyst is serving a life term at the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Freeland.
E-mail Nate Reens: nreens@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/natereens