This text was produced for ProPublica’s Native Reporting Community in partnership with Verite Information. Join Dispatches to get tales like this one as quickly as they’re printed.
A Louisiana decide this week put aside the first-degree homicide conviction and loss of life sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 1998 conviction for killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter was based mostly partly on chew mark proof that consultants now say is junk science.
The choice comes after a Verite Information and ProPublica investigation in March examined the questions surrounding Duncan’s conviction as Gov. Jeff Landry, a staunch loss of life penalty advocate, made strikes to expedite executions after a 15-year pause.
Decide Alvin Sharp, of the 4th Judicial District in Ouachita Parish, pointed to new testimony throughout a September appeals listening to that such chew mark evaluation introduced by a once-heralded forensics workforce is “now not legitimate” and “not scientifically defensible.”
The unique evaluation got here from forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose longtime partnership as state consultants fell underneath authorized scrutiny after questions emerged concerning the validity of their strategies.
Over the previous 27 years, 9 prisoners have been let loose after being convicted partly on inaccurate proof given by West and Hayne. Three of these males have been on loss of life row.
Duncan was the final particular person awaiting an execution based mostly on the pair’s work, which Sharp mentioned in his ruling appeared “questionable at greatest.”
Different professional witnesses mentioned that Hayne’s post-mortem and his findings have been “sloppy in apply” and “insufficient general.”
“It’s value noting that the {qualifications} of Dr. Hayne have been missing in sure methods to an extent that known as into critical query” the pathologist’s “professional designation,” Sharp wrote in his ruling.
Sharp additionally said in his ruling that he discovered “very compelling” the September testimony of an professional medical witness who mentioned that the kid’s loss of life was not the results of a murder however of an unintentional drowning.
It stays unclear when — or if — Duncan will stroll free.
Robert S. Tew, district lawyer for the 4th Judicial District, can select to attraction the choice, retry Duncan on the homicide cost or a lesser offense or settle for the courtroom’s ruling and set him free. Tew didn’t reply to requests for remark. Duncan’s authorized workforce declined to remark.
Louisiana has a protracted document of convicting and sentencing to loss of life individuals later discovered to be harmless. Prior to now three many years, the state has exonerated 11 individuals going through execution, among the many highest such numbers within the nation, in keeping with The Nationwide Registry of Exonerations.
Duncan, 56, has maintained his innocence for greater than three many years, whereas prosecutors continued to insist that Duncan dedicated the homicide and must be executed at once.
Duncan was babysitting Haley Oliveaux, his girlfriend’s daughter, on the home they shared in West Monroe, Louisiana, on Dec. 18, 1993. He mentioned he had left her alone within the bathtub whereas he washed dishes. Sooner or later, he mentioned he heard a loud noise from the toilet. When he went to verify on Haley, he discovered her floating face down within the water. She was pronounced lifeless a number of hours later.
Whereas Duncan claimed it was a tragic accident, authorities charged him with first-degree homicide after Hayne and West examined the lady’s physique and decided there was proof she was sexually assaulted and deliberately drowned. After about two weeks of testimony in 1998, the jury discovered Duncan responsible and sentenced him to loss of life.
Years later, Duncan’s post-conviction attorneys uncovered proof that was not introduced at trial that, they mentioned, proves his innocence. This features a jailhouse informant who wrote to prosecutors providing to share Duncan’s confession to the crime in what the protection claims was an alternate for leniency (the informant later recanted his trial testimony); previous head accidents Haley suffered which may clarify her loss of life; and a video wherein West might be seen grinding a forged of Duncan’s enamel into Haley’s physique. West later claimed these chew marks, which the protection says the forensic dentist manufactured, have been a match for Duncan’s enamel.
Credit score:
Obtained by Verite Information and ProPublica. Highlighted by ProPublica.
Hayne died in 2020. West didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the ruling.
West has beforehand mentioned he was merely utilizing what he known as a “direct comparability” approach, wherein he presses a mould of an individual’s enamel immediately onto the situation of suspected chew marks as a result of it supplies essentially the most correct outcomes, in keeping with a 2020 interview with Oxygen.com.
West mentioned he now not believed in chew mark evaluation in a 2011 deposition in a distinct post-conviction attraction, saying, “I don’t imagine it’s a system that’s dependable sufficient for use in courtroom” and admitted to creating errors in earlier instances. However he informed The New Republic in a 2023 interview that his strategies are legitimate as a result of different individuals have used them.
On this week’s ruling, Sharp additionally famous the September testimony of Detective Chris Sasser, who investigated Haley’s loss of life. Sasser mentioned there was “no blood, no indicators of wrestle, no cleansing rags and no cleansing brokers” within the toilet or home the place the alleged crime occurred. This undermined the state’s assertion that there was “huge blood loss,” the ruling mentioned.
As well as, Sharp discovered that Duncan’s trial lawyer, Louis Scott, offered ineffective counsel. Sharp pointed to a witness who testified that Scott didn’t “examine or current proof that was obtainable on the time of the trial,” that he didn’t “develop a coherent principle of protection,” and that he didn’t disclose a battle of curiosity.
Scott’s spouse informed Verite Information and ProPublica that he has suffered vital well being issues together with reminiscence and speech impairment and declined to touch upon the decide’s ruling.
Duncan is amongst 55 individuals on loss of life row in Louisiana, although till very lately he and the others weren’t in imminent hazard of being executed because the state hadn’t put anybody to loss of life since 2010 as a result of unavailability of execution medication. That modified with Landry’s 2023 election.
Landry has made clear his intention to hold out these loss of life sentences as quickly as attainable, having lately authorized the usage of nitrogen fuel, a controversial methodology allowed in solely three different states.
This cleared the best way for the state’s first execution in additional than 15 years, as Jessie Hoffman was put to loss of life on March 18 utilizing nitrogen fuel.
