FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A Pamplico man spending 36 years in prison for the January 2020 murder of his 76-year-old aunt wants the sentence tossed, blaming his “flawed memory” as a grounds for not filing an appeal.

Edward Eugene Dewitt was out on parole on a 2016 armed robbery charge when authorities charged him in the death of Lois Dewitt, whose body was found in a Kennedy Haines Road home.

She died of blunt force trauma in what the Florence County Sheriff’s Office said was a robbery attempt.

In a petition for post-conviction relief filed Wednesday in Florence County Common Pleas Court, Dewitt said memory gaps and ineffective counsel were to blame for him not filing an appeal following his November 2022 conviction.

Dewitt is an inmate at the Kershaw Correctional Institution.

“I have flawed memory regarding my actions and/or whereabouts in relation to the incident and from conversations with my formerly appointed trial counsel I was under the impression that my DNA was found at the crime scene,” Dewitt wrote. “Due to these combination of facts and my limited understanding of the judicial process I failed to perfect an appeal.”

Dewitt claims his attorney didn’t give him access to a South Carolina Law Enforcement DNA analysis ahead of the trial, instead “persuading the applicant to plead guilty by informing the applicant that forensic results showed his DNA was left at the crime scene.”

Dewitt previously sued the Florence County Sheriff’s Office and Florence County Detention Center, claiming he was denied proper medical treatment and the victim of excessive force.