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Justices deny convict’s bid to test DNA

NEW HAVEN — A man convicted of a 1995 killing cannot do DNA testing on a hat recovered from the crime scene, because the evidence against him was strong, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The high court rejected an appeal by John Dupigney, convicted in 2000 of killing Morris Lewis. Dupigney, who is serving a 70-year prison sentence, sought to test a bloodied knit hat, arguing that the results and a claim implicating another man could exonerate him.

The Supreme Court, upholding a lower court, said there were many reasons someone else’s DNA could be on the hat and it would not undermine confidence in a verdict based on three witnesses. They identified Dupigney as the shooter and said he was wearing a black knit hat.

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Dupigney’s earlier appeal to get the hat tested was also rejected. In the latest appeal, he cited a claim by a man implicating his now-dead drug-trafficking associate in the killing. The high court called that claim dubious.

The court said the latest appeal amounted to a request ‘‘to undertake a fishing expedition on the off chance that it might yield evidence that allows him to point a finger at someone else.’’

The case against Dupigney also included evidence related to motive and evidence the shooter was riding in a turquoise Dodge Neon, the same kind of vehicle Dupigney was seen getting into shortly before the murder, Palmer wrote.