<p>A man convicted of murdering his 2-year-old niece after kidnapping and raping her is slated for execution Wednesday, after the state parole board denied requests to put it off until DNA testing could be done.</p><p>Lawyers for Eddie Albert Crawford, 56, had requested a 90-day stay of his execution while investigators tested bloodstained bed sheets and pants to see if they matched the DNA of the killed girl.</p><p>Reasons for denying clemency include the viciousness of the crime, the age of the victim, and the fact that the murder was committed during an attempt to rape the young victim, parole board spokeswoman Heather Hedrick said Tuesday.</p><p>The board rejected pleas for DNA testing, saying that would be the job of the court system. Crawford has an appeal pending before the Georgia Supreme Court. The inmate is scheduled to die by injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Jackson.</p><p>Crawford is testing a new state law that allows convicted inmates to request DNA analysis even years after being convicted.</p><p>Prosecutors argued at trial that Crawford sneaked into the house and kidnapped the girl, Leslie Michelle English, after her mother _ his sister-in-law _ refused to have sex with him.</p><p>The girls body was found in a wooded area a couple of miles away, strangled and raped.</p><p>Crawford claimed he had blacked out after heavy drinking and didnt remember what happened.</p><p>Testing on sheets found in the girls bedroom could reveal the girls blood or someone other than Crawfords blood, said August Siemon, who represented Crawford at his 1984 trial. Siemon said that would either undermine the prosecutions claims that the girl was killed after being kidnapped, or it could point to another suspect.</p><p>If theres blood from the victim and blood from another individual, that would be strong evidence that Eddie Crawford was not guilty, Siemon said.</p><p>DNA testing uses the genetic fingerprint to match bodily fluids or hair to individuals with a high degree of certainty.</p><p>Spalding County District Attorney Bill McBroom said testing the blood on the pants, which didnt belong to Crawford, isnt relevant because it couldnt clear Crawford.</p><p>If it had been semen, then yeah, said McBroom. Blood on a pair of pants, that doesnt prove anything.</p>
