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This week, a Louisiana judge put aside the conviction for first -degree murder and the death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose conviction in 1998 for killing the 23 -month -old daughter of her girlfriend was based in part in bite, say, say.
The decision is produced after a Verita investigation and Propublic investigation in March examined the questions surrounding Duncan’s conviction as Governor Jeff Landry, a firm defender of the death penalty, made movements to accelerate executions after a 15 -year pause.
Judge Alvin Sharp, of the 4th Judicial District in the Parish of Ouachita, indicated the duration of the New Testimony, a September appeal hearing that said analysis of bites of bites presented by a forensic team that once was “is no longer valid” and “is not scientifically defensively defensively” “”
The original analysis came from the forensic dental Michael West and the pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose association for a long time as state experts fell under legal scrutiny after questions arose about the validity of their techniques.
In the last 27 years, nine prisoners have released their legs after being partly sentenced for inaccurate evidence given by West and Hayne. Three of those people were in the death corridor.
Duncan was the last person who expected an execution based on the couple’s work, what Sharp said in his ruling seemed “questionable at best.”
Other expert witnesses said that Hayne’s autopsy and their findings were “careless in practice” and “inappropriate in general.”
“It is worth noting that Dr. Hayne’s qualifications lacked certain ways to a measure that asked for a question would be” the pathologist’s expert designation, “Sharp wrote in his failure.
Sharp also declared in his ruling that he found “very convincing” the testimony of an expert medical witness who said that the child’s death was not the result of a homicide but of accidental drowning.
It is not clear when, or yes, they will walk free.
Robert S. TEW, District Prosecutor of the 4th Judicial District, can choose to appeal the decision, try again for the position of murder or crime minor or in addition to the courts govern and release it. TEW did not respond to comments requests. Duncan’s legal team declined to comment.
Louisiana has a long history to condemn and sentence to death people who are later innocent. In the last three decades, the State has exonerated 11 people who face the execution, among the highest numbers in the country, according to the National Registry of Exemptions.
Duncan, 56, has maintained his innocence for more than three decades, while prosecutors continued to insist that Duncan committed the murder and should be executed without delay.
Duncan was a child boy Haley Olthevelx, his girlfriend’s daughter, in the house they shared in West Monroe, Louisiana, on December 18, 1993. He said he left her alone in the bathtub while washing the plates. At some point, he said he heard a loud noise from the bathroom. When he went to see Haley, he found floating face down in the water. It was declared dead a few hours later.
While Duncan said it was a tragic accident, the authorities accused him of first degree murder after Hayne and West examined the girl’s body and determined that there was evidence that she was sexually assaulted and intentionally drowned. After approximately two weeks of testimony in 1998, the jury found Duncan guilty and sentenced him to death.
Years later, lawyers after Duncan’s conviction discovered evidence that he did not appear at the trial that, they said, demonstrates their innocence. This includes an informant of the jail who wrote to prosecutors sacrifices to share the confession of Duncan to the crime in what the defense states was an exchange of indulgence (the informant then retracted his testimony of judgment); He adapts to the head injuries that Haley suffered that he could explain his death; And a video in which we can see west rolling a cast or Duncan’s teeth in Haley’s body. Later, West said that these bite brands, which the defense says that the forensic dentist made, were a match for Duncan’s teeth.
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Hayne died in 2020. West did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the ruling.
West has said previously that he was simply using what he called a “direct comparison” technique, in which he presses a mold of a person’s teeth directly on the location of the suspended bite brands because he provides the most precise results, according to 2020.
West said he no longer believes in the analysis of bite brands in a 2011 statement in a different appeal after the conviction, saying: “I do not think it is a systemable enough to be used in court” and admitted to having made mistakes. But he told The New Republic in a 2023 interview that their methods are valid because other people have used them.
In this week’s ruling, Sharp also pointed out the September testimony of Detective Chris Sasser, who investigated Haley’s death. Sasser said that “there was no blood, no signs of fighting, or cleaning rags and cleaning agents” in the bathroom or house where the alleged crime occurred. This undermined the state statement that there was “massive blood loss,” said the ruling.
In addition, Sharp found that Duncan’s litigating lawyer, Louis Scott, tried an ineffective lawyer. Sharp told a witness who testified that Scott could not “investigate or present evidence that was available at the time of trial”, that he “developed a coherent theory of defense” and that he did not reveal a conflict of interest.
Scott’s wife told Verite News and Propublic that he has suffered significant health problems, including the disability of memory and speech and refused to comment on the judge’s ruling.
Duncan is among the 55 people in the death corridor in Louisiana, he thought until recently and the others were not imminent of being executed since the State had denied since 2010 due to the lack of availability of execution drugs. That changed with Landry’s 2023 elections.
Landry has made clear its intention to carry out thesis sentences as soon as possible, after recently approved the use of nitrogen gas, a controversial method allowed in just three other states.
This cleared the way for the first execution of the State in more than 15 years, since Jessie Hoffman was very well dead on March 18 using nitrogen gas.
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