Louisiana man freed on bail after 30 years on death row following tossed conviction

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row was released from prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and released him on bail.

Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and strangulation of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux; this case had long been overshadowed by controversial forensic testimony. His release came months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and based on discredited bite mark analysis.

Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Alvin Sharp overturned the conviction in April, concluding that expert testimony presented at trial was “scientifically indefensible” and that the toddler’s death appeared consistent with accidental drowning.

“The presumption of guilt is not a good one,” Sharp wrote in his order granting Duncan bail last week, citing new evidence presented at last year’s evidentiary hearing and the man’s lack of any prior criminal history.

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Similar faulty forensic bite mark analysis has resulted in dozens of other wrongful convictions or charges.

Duncan’s lawyers said in a statement that Sharp’s decision in April showed “clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Duncan is factually innocent,” adding that Duncan’s release on bail “marks an important step toward Mr. Duncan’s complete exoneration.”

Duncan was released after posting $150,000 bail. He plans to live with a relative in central Louisiana while his vacated conviction is reviewed by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who has been pushing to speed up executions, objected to Duncan’s release and argued he should remain behind bars until the state’s high court makes a decision. However, the Louisiana Supreme Court allowed the district court to rule on Duncan’s bail request, paving the way for Duncan’s release.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 200 death row inmates have been exonerated nationwide since 1973; among them, a dozen are located in Louisiana; This is one of the highest wrongful conviction rates in the country. Louisiana has one of the highest wrongful conviction rates in the country. The last death penalty acquittal in the Bayou State was in 2016.

Duncan was one of 55 people sentenced to death at the state prison in Louisiana known as Angola. Louisiana carried out its first execution in 15 years earlier this year.

At last week’s bail hearing, the victim’s mother stunned the courtroom by saying she now believed Duncan did not kill her daughter. He told the judge that the boy, who had a history of seizures, probably drowned accidentally.

From a tower next to Angola Penitentiary’s Camp 57, a Louisiana corrections officer looks out over the Louisiana State Penitentiary and America’s largest maximum security prison farm. (Getty Images)

Statham stated that his daughter “was not killed” and emphasized that “Haley died because she was sick.”

He told the court that his family’s and Duncan’s lives were “devastated by the lie” that he said prosecutors and forensic experts had fabricated.

Prosecutors relied heavily on bite mark analysis and autopsy findings by forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Steven Hayne; These two experts were later convicted of multiple crimes.

Defense attorneys said the autopsy video showed West pressing a tooth mold into the little boy’s skin, creating the same bite marks later attributed to Duncan. A state-appointed expert who was unaware of the video testified at the hearing that the markings matched Duncan’s teeth.

“I’m infuriated by the horror story they published and disrespected my baby’s memory,” Statham said.

“Nothing has been reported to me that would exonerate Mr. Duncan,” he continued. “If I had been there then, things would have been very different for Mr. Duncan and all of our families.”

In the last 25 years, there have been at least two dozen wrongful convictions or indictments based on bite mark analysis.

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The entrance to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

Innocence Project attorney M. Chris Fabricant criticized the forensic methods used in the case, telling the court that “bite mark evidence is junk science” and is among the most damaging forms of flawed forensic testimony still accepted in U.S. courts.

West and Hayne’s work has been linked to numerous wrongful convictions, including those of Mississippi men Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, who spent a combined 30 years in prison before DNA evidence exonerated them.

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Despite the new revelations, prosecutors are still trying to reinstate Duncan’s conviction and have cited the original 1994 grand jury indictment in arguing that he should remain in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.