A Louisiana man has been released on bail after 30 years on death row following a conviction
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A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years walked free from prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail.
Jimmie Duncan, now 60, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and death of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux – The case is clouded by lengthy documents and contradictory evidence. His acquittal comes months after a federal judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to defend the conviction was unreliable and focused on analysis of dirty bite marks.
Fourth Circuit Judge Alvin Sharp threw out the case in April, concluding that the technical evidence presented in the case “clearly showed” that the infant’s death was not consistent with an accidental death.
“The presumption is not so good that he is guilty,” it was written in his week last week that Duncan’s bail was granted, pointing to new evidence presented in court of past events and the fact that the man had no previous criminal history.
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Jimmie Duncan, second from left, with family and friends at the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola. (Mwalimu Center for Justice via AP)
The analysis of motmars that are similar to the truth has led to the conviction of some believers or innocent cases.
Duncan’s lawyers said in a statement that the ruling in April showed “clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Duncan’s release was innocent,” meaning that Duncan’s release on bail is the full extent of Mr. Duncan’s case. “
Duncan was released after posting a $150,000 bond. He plans to stay with a relative in central Louisiana while his conviction is reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrurr, a Republican who has pushed for speeding up the case, rejected Duncan’s release and argued that he should remain behind bars until the Supreme Court. But the Louisiana Supreme Court allowed a district court to rule on Duncan’s bail request, setting a path for release.
More than 200 prisons locked up across the country have been purged since 1973, including a dozen in Louisiana, according to the Penlonal Tunsolty Information Center – one of the highest conviction rates in the country. Louisiana has one of the highest rates of acquittal in the country. The last death row exit in the Bayou area was in 2016.
Duncan was one of 55 people on Louisiana’s death row at the state prison known as Angola. Louisiana had its first homicide in 15 years earlier this year.
During a bail hearing last week, the victim’s mother surprised the court when she said she now believes Duncan did not kill her daughter. He told the judge that the child, who had a history of assaults, may have died accidentally.
A Louisiana Prepared Officer looks at the tower through Camp 57 at Angola Prison, a prison farm in Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana and America. (Pet Pictures)
Statham said his daughter “wasn’t killed,” insisting that Haley died because she was sick. “
She told the court that her and Duncan’s family’s lives were “destroyed by lies” she says prosecutors and forensics experts made.
Prosecutors relied heavily on the analysis of bite marks and autopsy findings from forensic dentist Michael Wentist and pathologist Steven Hayne – two experts who were later arrested in multiple convictions.
Defense attorneys said the autopsy video showed West pressing a toothpick into the flesh, creating severe bite marks later attributed to Duncan. A State’s expert, unaware of the video, testified for the prosecution that the marks matched Duncan’s teeth.
“The horror story that they put out and they even made my own memory of my child makes me angry,” Statham said.
“I was not made aware of anything that would have apologized to Mr. Duncan,” he continued. “If I had been like that at the time, things would have been very different for Mr. Duncan and all of our families.”
In the past 25 years, there have been at least twenty convictions or lawsuits based on bite mark analysis.
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Department of Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
The Innocence Project’s M. Chris Fabricant blasted the methods used in the case, telling the court that “scientific bite evidence is emerging within the Forensic courts that have been assigned.
West and Hayne’s work has been linked to several wrongful convictions, including those of Mississippi Men Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, who were held 30 years ago before there was DNA evidence.
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Despite these new revelations, the prosecutors still want to restore Duncan’s conviction and charge the first case of 1994 of the great 1994 of the great argument that he should remain in prison.
The accompanying device contributed to this report.
