A Louisiana man who spent almost three a long time on loss of life row has been launched on bail Wednesday after his conviction was overturned earlier this 12 months.
Jimmie Duncan had initially been convicted of first-degree homicide in 1998 after prosecutors accused him of raping and drowning 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux, the daughter of his then-girlfriend Allison Layton Statham.
Fourth Judicial District Courtroom Choose Alvin Sharp threw out that conviction in April after listening to skilled testimony that the forensic proof which put Duncan behind bars was “not scientifically defensible” and that Oliveaux’s loss of life seemed to be the results of an “accidental drowning.” Related defective forensic chew mark evaluation has led to dozens of different wrongful convictions or expenses.
“The presumption is not great that he is guilty,” Sharp wrote in his order Friday granting Duncan bail, citing the brand new proof offered at an evidentiary listening to final 12 months and Duncan’s lack of prior prison historical past.
This 2017 picture reveals Jimmie Duncan, second from left, with household and pals on the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana.
Mwalimu Heart for Justice through AP
Duncan’s attorneys mentioned in a press release that Sharp’s ruling earlier this 12 months offered “clear and convincing evidence showing that Mr. Duncan is factually innocent.” They added that Duncan’s launch on bail “marks a significant step forward for Mr. Duncan’s complete exoneration.”
Louisiana has certainly one of highest wrongful conviction charges in nation
Since 1973, greater than 200 individuals on loss of life row have been exonerated, together with 12 individuals in Louisiana, in response to the Dying Penalty Data Heart. In Louisiana, which has one of many highest wrongful conviction charges within the nation, the final loss of life row exoneration got here in 2016. Earlier this month, a person who served a long time in jail earlier than being exonerated gained election to function the chief recordkeeper of New Orleans’ prison court docket.
Duncan, whose vacated conviction continues to be being reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Courtroom, was launched after posting a $150,000 bond. He plans to stay with a relative in central Louisiana.
Louisiana Legal professional Common Liz Murrill, who’s pushing to hasten executions of loss of life row inmates, mentioned that Duncan shouldn’t be launched on bail whereas the Louisiana Supreme Courtroom evaluations his case.
However the excessive court docket agreed to let a district choose rule on Duncan’s bail request.
Throughout Duncan’s bail listening to in Ouachita Parish, the mom of the woman he was accused of killing instructed the choose that she had develop into satisfied of Duncan’s innocence. As an alternative, Statham believed her daughter, who she mentioned had a historical past of seizures, had by chance drowned in a tub.
The Innocence Mission mentioned in a press release that within the weeks previous to her loss of life Haley suffered from a sequence of seizures and accidents, together with one which occurred from a fall and led to per week lengthy hospital keep. Heat baths may enhance the danger of subsequent seizures, the assertion mentioned.
Her daughter “wasn’t killed,” Statham mentioned in response to court docket data. “Haley died because she was sick.”
Statham instructed the court docket that the lives of her household and Duncan “have been destroyed by the lie” she believed prosecutors and forensic consultants had concocted.
Prosecutors had relied on chew mark evaluation and an post-mortem carried out by two consultants later linked to at the least 10 wrongful convictions, in response to Duncan’s authorized staff, which described the pair as discredited “charlatans.”
Mississippi-based forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Steven Hayne examined Oliveaux’s physique.
Chunk-mark evaluation discredited
A video recording of the examination reveals West “forcibly pushing a mold of Mr. Duncan’s teeth into the child’s body — creating the bite marks” later used to convict him, a court-filing from Duncan’s authorized staff said. A state-appointed skilled, unaware of this technique, testified throughout trial that the chew marks on the physique matched Duncan’s.
“The horror story that they put out and desecrated my baby’s memory makes me infuriated,” Statham mentioned.
“I was not informed of anything that would have exonerated Mr. Duncan at all,” she added. “Had I been then, things would have turned out a lot different for Mr. Duncan and all of our families.”
An Related Press evaluate from 2013 discovered at the least two dozen wrongful convictions or expenses primarily based on chew mark proof since 2000.
“Bite mark evidence is junk science, and there is no more prejudicial type of junk science that exists than bite mark evidence,” M. Chris Fabricant, an Innocence Mission lawyer representing Duncan, instructed the court docket in the course of the bail listening to.
Hayne, the pathologist, is deceased. West has beforehand mentioned that DNA testing has made chew mark evaluation out of date, but he has defended his work in different circumstances that led to overturned convictions. The pair’s testimony led two Mississippi males, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, to serve a mixed three a long time in jail in two separate circumstances for the rape and homicide of younger women till DNA proof cleared them of the crimes.
Prosecutors are in search of to reinstate Duncan’s conviction and pointed to the 1994 grand jury indictment in his case as grounds for protecting him locked up, court docket data present. The workplace of Ouachita Parish District Legal professional Robert Tew declined to remark, citing the Louisiana Supreme Courtroom’s pending evaluate.
Duncan was certainly one of 55 individuals on loss of life row in Louisiana, held on the state jail in Angola. After a 15-year hiatus, Louisiana carried out its first execution in March.
Duncan’s authorized staff described him as a “model prisoner” who helped different loss of life row inmates get hold of their GEDs and has “strong community support for his release.”
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