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This week Judge Louisiana Set aside the first degree in murder and death sentence Jimmy Chris Duncan, who was founded partly on the bite of the evidence of the murder of the 23-month-old daughter of his girlfriend, what experts say there is unhealthy science.
The decision comes after News Verite and PROPUBLICA Investigation In March, the issues related to Duncan’s belief as Governor Jeff Landra, an unwavering defender of the death penalty, took steps to accelerate the shootings after a 15-year pause.
Judge Elvin Sharp, the fourth trial in the Parish of the Uvit, pointed to new testimony during the September appeal, listening that such an analysis of such a bite was once presented by the heralded team of forensic examination, “no longer acts” and “does not scientifically defend”.
The initial analysis was taken from the forensic dentist Michael West and the path There are questions about the justice of their methods.
Over the last 27 years, nine prisoners have been released after being partly convicted of inaccurate evidence gave by the West and Hane. Three of these men were in the death chamber.
Duncan was the last person waiting for the shooting based on the work of the couple, which in his Sark’s decree stated that “at best”.
Other witnesses of the experts said the exposing Hayne and his conclusions were “untidy in practice” and “inadequate”.
“It is worth noting that the qualification of Dr. Hayne lacked a certain extent to such an extent that it caused a serious issue,” “expert appointment of the pathologists,” Sharp wrote in his ruling.
In his decree, Sharp also stated that he had considered “very convincing” the testimony of an expert medical witness, who stated that the death of the child was not the result of murder but by accidental drowning.
It remains unclear if – or when – Duncan will go free.
Robert S. Tsu, the district prosecutor of the Fourth District, can choose the decision on this decision, release Duncan on charges of killing either a lesser offense, or to take a court ruling and release him. TEW did not respond to comment requests. Duncan’s legal team refused to comment.
The Louisiana has a long recording of convicts and a sentence to people who later appeared innocent. Over the last three decades, the state has released 11 people who have been faced with the shooting, among the highest such figures in the country, reports National Extragrams Register.
The 56 -year -old Duncan supported his innocence for more than three decades, while the prosecutor’s office continued to insist that Duncan committed the murder and should be performed without delay.
Dankan babysitting Haley Oliva, his girl’s daughter, in the house they shared in West Monroe, Louisiana, December 18, 1993. He said he left her alone in the bath while washing the dishes. At one point, he said he heard a loud noise from the bathroom. When he went to check Haley, he found her floating down in the water. A few hours later she was recognized as dead.
While Duncan claimed that it was a tragic accident, the authorities accused him of murdering the first degree after Hayne and West examined the girl’s body and determined that there was evidence that she had sexual attacks and intentionally drowned. About two weeks later, the jury found Duncan guilty in 1998 and sentenced him to death.
After years, Duncan’s lawyers revealed evidence after the appeal, which were not presented in court, which, according to them, proves their innocence. This includes a prison informant who wrote to the prosecutor’s office, who proposed to share Duncan’s recognition in the crime that the defense statements were indulgent (later the informant abandoned his court testimony); Haley’s past injuries suffered, which could explain her death; And a video in which the West can be seen to grind Duncan’s teeth in Hale’s body. Later, the West claimed that these signs of the bite, which, according to their defender, produced a judicial dentist, were matches for Duncan’s teeth.
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Hein died in 2020. The West did not immediately respond to requests for a comment to the ruling.
Earlier, the West stated that he just uses what he called the technique of “direct comparison”, in which he presses the shape of a person’s teeth directly to the place of suspects because it gives the most accurate results, according to A Interview 2020 with Oxygen.com.
West said he no longer believed in the analysis of the bite in the 2011 deposit in another call after confiscation, saying: “I do not believe it is a system that is reliable enough to be used in court” and admitted mistakes in previous cases. But he told the new republic in an interview with 2023 that his methods are acting because other people used them.
In this week’s ruling, Sharp also noted the September testimony of Chris Saser’s detective, which investigated Hale’s death. Suser said there were no blood in the bathroom or house, no signs of struggle, no cleaning and any cleansing agents “where the crime was allegedly undermined. This undermined the state’s” massive blood loss “, the resolution said.
In addition, Sharp found that Duncan’s court Louis Scott gave an ineffective lawyer. Sharp pointed to the witness, who testified that Scott could not “investigate or present evidence that was available during the trial” that he did not “develop a concerted defense theory” and that he did not reveal the conflict of interests.
Scott’s wife told Verite News and Propublica that he had suffered significant health problems, including memory and speech violations, and refused to comment on the judge’s decision.
Duncan is among the 55 death in Louisiana, although until recently he and others have not been inevitable to be shot because the state has not taken anyone since 2010 because of the inaccessibility of drugs. This changed in the 2023 elections.
Landra made it clear to his intention to carry out these death sentences as soon as possible, recently approving the use of nitrogen gas, the contradictory method is only allowed in three other states.
This cleaned the way for the first shooting of the state for more than 15 years as Jesse Hoffman To death March 18 using nitrogen gas.
