State Supreme Court again rules against Poirier killer

(AP) - For the third time, an appeal by convicted killer Donald Blom has been turned back by the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Blom was convicted in the 1999 kidnapping and killing of convenience store clerk Katie Poirier, a case that sparked new sex offender laws in Minnesota.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Blom's attempt to gain a new trial, saying his arguments didn't meet a procedural threshold.

Blom is serving a life sentence. He maintains that a confession he gave authorities was coerced and that he has been denied the chance to develop evidence that could prove his innocence.

Poirier was abducted from the gas station in Moose Lake where she worked.

After his arrest, Blom confessed to strangling the woman and burning her body on his property near Moose Lake. He later recanted the confession, but it was used in his trial.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)