new orleans — Louisiana man who He spent nearly three decades on death row He was released on bail on Wednesday after his conviction was overturned earlier this year.
Jimmy Duncan was originally convicted of first-degree murder in 1998 after prosecutors accused him of raping and drowning 23-month-old Haley Olivox, the daughter of his then-girlfriend Allison Leighton Statham.
4th District Court Judge Alvin Sharp overturned that conviction in April after hearing expert testimony that the forensic evidence that put Duncan behind bars was “scientifically indefensible” and that Olivo’s death appeared to be the result of “accidental drowning.” Similar faulty analysis of bite marks in forensics has led to dozens of other wrongful convictions or charges.
“The presumption is not high that he is guilty,” Sharpe wrote in his order Friday granting Duncan bail, citing new evidence presented at the court hearing. Hear the proof last year and Duncan’s lack of prior criminal history.
Duncan’s lawyers said in a statement that Sharp’s ruling earlier this year provided “clear and convincing evidence showing that Mr. Duncan is indeed innocent.” They added that Duncan’s release on bail “represents an important step forward towards the full exoneration of Mr Duncan”.
Since 1973, more than 200 people on death row have been exonerated, including 12 in Louisiana, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Louisiana, which has one of the highest wrongful conviction rates in the country, is last Acquittal of those sentenced to death It came in 2016. Earlier this month, man He spent decades in prison Before being acquitted, he won election to serve as chief registrar of the New Orleans Criminal Court.
Duncan, whose overturned conviction is still being reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Court, was released after posting $150,000 bail. He plans to live with a relative in central Louisiana.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Morrill, who is pushing for speed Execution of prisoners sentenced to deathHe said Duncan should not be released on bail while the Louisiana Supreme Court reviews his case.
But the Supreme Court agreed to allow the district judge to rule on Duncan’s bail application.
During Duncan’s bail hearing in Ouachita Parish, the mother of the girl he is accused of killing told the judge she had become convinced of Duncan’s innocence. Instead, Statham believed her daughter, who she said had a history of seizures, had accidentally drowned in the bathtub.
Statham said, according to court records, that her daughter “was not murdered.” “Hailey died because she was sick.”
Statham told the court her family’s lives and Duncan’s were “ruined by the lie” she believed prosecutors and forensic experts had concocted.
Prosecutors relied on bite mark analysis and an autopsy conducted by two experts who were later linked to at least 10 Wrongful convictionsaccording to Duncan’s legal team, who described the couple as discredited “charlatans.”
Forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Stephen Hine of Mississippi examined Olivox’s body.
A video recording of the examination shows West “forcibly pushing a mold of Mr. Duncan’s teeth into the child’s body — creating the bite marks” that were later used to convict him, a court filing from Duncan’s legal team says. A state-appointed expert, who was not aware of this method, testified during the trial that the bite marks on the body matched Duncan’s.
“The horror story they spread and desecrated my child’s memory makes me angry,” Statham said.
She added: “I was not told anything that would exonerate Mr. Duncan at all.” “If I had been, things would have been much different for Mr. Duncan and all our families.”
Associated Press Review from 2013 It found at least two dozen wrongful convictions or charges based on bite mark evidence since 2000.
“Bite mark evidence is junk science, and there is no more harmful type of junk science than bite mark evidence,” M. Chris Fabricant, an Innocence Project attorney representing Duncan, told the court during his bail hearing.
HAYNE, Coroner, died. West previously said DNA testing made bite mark analysis obsolete, but it did He defended his work In other cases, convictions were overturned. The duo’s testimony led two Mississippi men, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, to spend three decades in prison in separate cases for the rape and murder of young girls until DNA evidence exonerated them of the crimes.
Court records show prosecutors are seeking to reconvict Duncan and have pointed to the 1994 grand jury indictment in his case as a basis for keeping him locked up. Ouachita Parish District Attorney Robert Tew’s office declined to comment, citing the Louisiana Supreme Court’s pending review.
Duncan was one of 55 people on death row in Louisiana, held at the state prison at Angola. After a 15-year hiatus, Louisiana She carried out her first execution In March.
Duncan’s legal team described him as a “model inmate” who has helped other death row inmates obtain their GED certificates and has “strong community support for his release.”
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Brock is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America It is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.