A Louisiana man who spent practically 30 years on loss of life row walked out of jail Wednesday after a decide overturned his conviction and granted him bail.
Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to loss of life in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case lengthy clouded by disputed forensic testimony.
His launch comes months after a state decide dominated that the proof prosecutors used to safe the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark evaluation.
Fourth Judicial District Court docket Choose Alvin Sharp tossed the conviction in April, concluding that the skilled testimony introduced at trial was “not scientifically defensible” and that the toddler’s loss of life appeared in step with an unintentional drowning.
“The presumption is just not nice that he’s responsible,” Sharp wrote in his order final week granting Duncan bail, pointing to new proof introduced at an evidentiary listening to final 12 months and the truth that the person had no earlier felony historical past.
Comparable defective forensic chunk mark evaluation has resulted in dozens of different wrongful convictions or prices.
Duncan’s attorneys stated in a press release that Sharp’s ruling in April confirmed “clear and convincing proof displaying that Mr. Duncan is factually harmless,” including that Duncan’s launch on bail “marks a major step ahead for Mr. Duncan’s full exoneration.”
Duncan was launched after posting a $150,000 bond. He plans to reside with a relative in central Louisiana whereas his vacated conviction is being reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Court docket.
Louisiana Legal professional Basic Liz Murrill, a Republican who has pushed to hurry up executions, objected to Duncan’s launch and argued he ought to stay behind bars till the state’s excessive court docket reaches a call. However the Louisiana Supreme Court docket allowed the district court docket to rule on Duncan’s bail request, paving the way in which for his launch.
Greater than 200 loss of life row inmates nationwide have been cleared since 1973, together with a dozen in Louisiana, in line with the Dying Penalty Data Middle — one of many highest wrongful-conviction charges within the nation.
Louisiana has one of many highest wrongful conviction charges within the nation. The final loss of life row exoneration within the Bayou State was in 2016.
Duncan was considered one of 55 folks on loss of life row in Louisiana on the state jail often known as Angola. Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years earlier this 12 months.
Throughout final week’s bail listening to, the sufferer’s mom shocked the courtroom when she stated she now believes Duncan didn’t kill her daughter. She informed the decide that the kid, who had a historical past of seizures, doubtless drowned by chance.
Statham stated her daughter “wasn’t killed,” stressing that “Haley died as a result of she was sick.”
She informed the court docket that the lives of her household and Duncan “have been destroyed by the lie” she says prosecutors and forensic consultants had made up.
Prosecutors had relied closely on bite-mark evaluation and post-mortem findings from forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Steven Hayne — two consultants later tied to a number of overturned convictions.
Protection attorneys stated a video of the post-mortem exhibits West urgent a dental mould into the toddler’s pores and skin, creating the very chunk marks later attributed to Duncan.
A state-appointed skilled, unaware of the video, testified at trial that the marks matched Duncan’s enamel.
“The horror story that they put out and desecrated my child’s reminiscence makes me infuriated,” Statham stated.
“I used to be not knowledgeable of something that may have exonerated Mr. Duncan in any respect,” she continued. “Had I been then, issues would have turned out lots completely different for Mr. Duncan and all of our households.”
Within the final 25 years, there have been at the least two dozen wrongful convictions or prices that relied on chunk mark evaluation.
Innocence Venture lawyer M. Chris Fabricant blasted the forensic strategies used within the case, telling the court docket that “bite-mark proof is junk science” and stays among the many most prejudicial types of flawed forensic testimony nonetheless admitted in US courts.
West and Hayne’s work has been linked to a number of wrongful convictions, together with these of Mississippi males Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, who served a mixed 30 years earlier than DNA proof cleared them.
Regardless of the brand new revelations, prosecutors are nonetheless searching for to reinstate Duncan’s conviction and have cited the unique 1994 grand jury indictment in arguing he ought to stay incarcerated.
