Whether the court ultimately sides with Young and Pierce is anybody's guess. For the past 30 years, every court that has examined the case has upheld Junior Pierce's conviction, and there are many who believe in his guilt.

Even Hugh Munn, who as a young reporter at The State, crafted with his partner, the late Jack Truluck, an award winning series of reports questioning the state's evidence, says he believes that, in the end, Junior Pierce was rightly accused.

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"When I was at the newspaper, even after we went through all of this laborious stuff that Jack and I didI was more inclined to think that he did than he didn't. But there was this doubt. This nagging little doubt." Munn said. Later, as spokesman for SLED, "over the next few number of years, I talked to some of the players who are now no longer around, I was more inclined to believe that he did it, with maybe just a hint of a doubt, but not enoughI kind of think he did. But I think (the investigation) was just handledpoorly."

But there are others who remain even more firmly convinced that Pierce is innocent, at least of any complicity in Peg Cuttino's death. But if Junior Pierce didn't do it, and if Pee Wee Gaskins was lying when he claimed to have been the killer, then who did?

William J Pierce, prison photo ID

There are as many theories as there are doubters, it seems. Perhaps a drifter killed her. Perhaps the killer was among the hundreds of transient men somehow linked to the nearby Air Force base, the same Air Force base that housed the two officers who first stumbled across Peg Cuttino's body in the woods.

There are other tantalizing possibilities as well, said Young. "There was a fellow in Columbiawhocommitted two similar crimes," he said. In both cases, the bodies were dumped in shallow graves. The suspect "eventually died in California," Young said. "I think one of the best leads was him." But so far, Young said, "I can't put anything together."

Even Carrie LeNoir has theories about who might have killed Peg Cuttino. But for the time being, she says, she plans to keep them to herself. To her, the case is more than a simple whodunit. For three decades, despite setbacks and disappointments, it's been a kind of a crusade.

"Even if I knew (who) did it, I'd be foolish to say sountil we can get (Pierce) exonerated," she said. For now, she said, "I'm not interested in finding out who did it." Instead, she insists that she is interested only in reversing what she believes to have been a gross miscarriage of justice. "It's just not fair," she said. "If they did that to William J. Pierce, they could do that to any one of us."