A South Carolina prison inmate who vehemently maintained that DNA evidence cleared him of raping and killing his 12-year-old daughter has died while serving a life sentence in prison.
Billy Wayne Cope, 53, passed away in state custody on Thursday, apparently of natural causes, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said. An autopsy has been ordered by law.
Days after the November 29, 2001, killing of Amanda Cope, her father confessed three times to investigators.
Prosecutors charged him with murder and rape. But when DNA tests came back, the only genetic material on the girl's body was from a neighbor down the street.
Inmate's death: Billy Wayne Cope, 53, died on Thursday while serving a life sentence for the 2001 rape and murder of his 12-year-old daughter, Amanda Cope, after vehemently denying for years that he committed the crimes
Amanda was found dead inside her family's home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 2001
Prosecutors then said Cope allowed James Sanders into his home knowing he was going to attack his daughter, and that Cope had attacked the girl previously.
Both Cope and Sanders were convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole.
Accomplice: Cope's neighbor, James Sanders, was also convicted of rape and murder and sentenced to life in prison
Cope's attorneys said prosecutors were just molding the evidence to send an innocent man to prison and Cope had mental problems and was so devastated by his daughter's death that investigators were able to manipulate him into confessing to a crime he did not commit.
But the state Supreme Court upheld Cope's conviction in 2013 and the US Supreme Court refused to hear his case.
Cope's attorneys said that their inability to get Cope, a married father-of-three, out of prison was one of the most disappointing parts of their careers.
'Billy’s death marks a sad end to a horrible miscarriage of justice,' the defense attorneys wrote in a statement posted on the Facebook page Free Billy Wayne Cope.
Prosecutors said the Cope home in Rock Hill was locked and secure when 12-year-old Amanda was found strangled to death, so someone had to let Sanders in.
Defense attorneys countered that the home's lock could be easily picked with a credit card or driver's license.
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Happier times: The Cope family, inclduing wife Mary Sue, Billy and their three girls, are seen on the left at the dad's graduation. On the right, Amanda, the eldest, is pictured with her sisters, Jessica and Kyla
Cope confessed three times to police that he raped and strangled his 12-year-old daughter (pictured during Christmas), but his lawyers said the father had mental problems
The home was also filled with buckets of human waste, trash and other filth, making it impossible for a stranger to navigate the mess in the dark, said prosecutors, who also presented evidence Cope had sexually assaulted his daughter before the night she was killed.
'Billy Wayne Cope was a cruel and selfish individual who elevated his own sick desires above the welfare, happiness and ultimately the life of his own daughter. Today I only feel sorrow for his two surviving children,' prosecutor Kevin Brackett told The Herald after learning Cope had died.
Amanda's grave marker, adorned with flowers and an American flag, is seen at Grandview Memorial Park in her hometown of Rock Hill, South Carolina
'A DARK DAY FOR JUSTICE': BILLY COPE'S LAWYERS ADDRESS HIS DEATH
Billy Cope is pictured in prison
'In the years we represented Billy [Cope], he was unfailingly polite, optimistic, and full of faith, and he maintained these qualities in the long years that followed his conviction. Our inability to save him from this fate is one of the deepest disappointments of our lives and careers.
'Billy’s death marks a sad end to a horrible miscarriage of justice. Billy confessed to a dreadful crime he did not commit. When DNA later proved the actual killer was a career burglar and serial rapist named James Sanders, who had just been released from prison in North Carolina, law enforcement should have faced up to the truth and admitted they obtained a false confession from the grieving and psychologically vulnerable father of a murdered child.
'Instead, the prosecution concocted a fantastic new theory that Billy must have cooperated with Sanders -- a man he never met -- in raping and murdering his own daughter in his own home. The State, then, succeeded in convicting both, the real killer and Billy, of a crime only one person actually committed. Billy Cope lost everything -- the last 15 years of his life, his family, and now any chance that this legal atrocity will ever be set right. This is a dark day for justice in South Carolina.'
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