Jimmie Duncan, Louisiana Loss of life Row Inmate Launched on Bail, May Nonetheless Face Execution — ProPublica

Jimmie “Chris” Duncan walked out of the Ouachita Parish Correctional Heart and into the arms of his dad and mom final week after spending the final 27 years on loss of life row. 

Seven months in the past, a Louisiana district court docket choose vacated his homicide conviction for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, citing doubts in regards to the proof used to convict him. The choose granted bail after a number of authorized delays, together with an unsuccessful request by prosecutors to the Louisiana Supreme Courtroom to cease his launch. Now free, Duncan spent Thanksgiving together with his household — then celebrated his 57th birthday the subsequent day.  

“We thank God for Jimmie coming residence,” Duncan’s stepmom, Sharon Duncan, stated in an emailed assertion on behalf of the household.

However Duncan’s journey to freedom is way from over. Prosecutors have requested the state Supreme Courtroom to reinstate his loss of life sentence. Duncan’s attorneys declined to make him instantly accessible for an interview.

The April determination by Choose Alvin Sharp to put aside Duncan’s conviction and loss of life sentence got here after a Verite Information and ProPublica investigation examined the reliability of the important thing forensic proof used to convict him. On the time, Duncan confronted the potential of being put to loss of life as Gov. Jeff Landry, a staunch loss of life penalty advocate, made strikes to expedite executions after a 15-year pause.

Sharp, of the 4th Judicial District in Ouachita Parish, discovered that Duncan’s conviction was primarily based partially on chunk mark proof now thought of by consultants to be junk science. That unique evaluation got here from forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose longtime partnership as state consultants has been questioned following issues in regards to the validity of their strategies. West, who didn’t reply to earlier requests for remark, admitted in a 2011 deposition in one other case that he now not believed in chunk mark evaluation. Hayne died in 2020.

Over the previous 27 years, 9 prisoners have been let out after being convicted partially 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 primarily based on the pair’s work.

Robert S. Tew, district legal professional for Ouachita and Morehouse parishes, insisted in his attraction that the proof prosecutors offered is sound, that Duncan raped and murdered 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux, and that he must be executed immediately. Tew’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark about Duncan’s launch. 

Police arrested Duncan on Dec. 18, 1993. He was babysitting Haley that day within the residence he shared with the lady’s mom in West Monroe. Duncan informed legislation enforcement he had put the toddler within the tub earlier than going downstairs to scrub dishes. When he heard a noise coming from the toilet, he rushed upstairs to test on her and located Haley floating face down within the water. She was pronounced useless a couple of hours later.

Duncan was initially arrested for negligent murder, till Hayne and West carried out Haley’s medical examination and claimed they found proof she had been sexually assaulted and deliberately drowned. Hayne stated he discovered chunk marks on the lady’s physique,  which West then examined, claiming to seek out that they have been a match for Duncan’s enamel. 

Based mostly partially on these findings, prosecutors upped the cost towards Duncan to first-degree homicide. After about two weeks of testimony in 1998, the jury discovered Duncan responsible and sentenced him to loss of life. He would spend the subsequent quarter-century in a cell on loss of life row at Angola Jail.

Throughout that point, nonetheless, his attorneys with the Innocence Venture in New York, the Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner agency in Atlanta, and the Mwalimu Heart for Justice in New Orleans uncovered a trove of proof that finally led to his conviction being vacated in April. 

Probably the most damning of that new proof calls into query whether or not the chunk marks Hayne stated he discovered on Haley’s physique have been manufactured. In a video of West’s 1993 examination of Haley, which was not proven to jurors on the trial, the dentist may be seen taking a mould of Duncan’s enamel and grinding it into the lady’s physique. (West has beforehand stated he was merely utilizing what he referred to as a “direct comparability” method — wherein he presses a mould of an individual’s enamel straight onto the situation of suspected chunk marks.)

In his ruling vacating Duncan’s conviction, Sharp stated the work Hayne and West did on Duncan’s case was “now not legitimate” and “not scientifically defensible.” 

Extra proof that undermined Duncan’s conviction included testimony from an knowledgeable witness who stated that the kid’s loss of life was the outcome not of a murder however of an unintended drowning. And investigators working for Duncan’s authorized group spoke to a jailhouse informant who recanted his earlier trial testimony that Duncan confessed to the crime.

Haley’s mom, Allison Layton Statham, has come to assist Duncan’s launch, telling Mississippi Right now in a July interview that she believes Duncan “was falsely accused of a criminal offense he didn’t commit.” 

As the upper court docket weighs the state’s attraction, Sharp, who had already dominated that Duncan was factually harmless of the crime, granted him bail on Nov. 21, setting it at $150,000. In his determination, Sharp stated that the “presumption will not be nice” that Duncan is responsible and proof towards him is “not evident.” The state fought the discharge however misplaced in court docket, setting the stage for Duncan to be freed the day earlier than Thanksgiving. 

“When Chris acquired out and I went to hug him, I used to be very emotional,” stated legal professional Ann Ferebee, a member of Duncan’s authorized group for the final decade who greeted him shortly after his launch. “I used to be sort of choked up, and he requested me, ‘Are you doing OK?’

“‘Actually good to see you,’ is what I informed him.” 

Following his launch, Duncan went to stay with a member of the family in central Louisiana. Christian Bromley, one other legal professional of Duncan’s, stated he expects oral arguments within the state’s attraction to happen earlier than the state Supreme Courtroom in early 2026. Ought to prosecutors lose that spherical, they might take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom, retry Duncan on the identical fees or retry him a brand new set of fees, Bromley stated. 

Or they might drop the fees altogether. However that appears unlikely, he stated. 

“We met Chris nearly 10 years in the past and have believed in his innocence, similar to he has, that total time,” Bromley stated. “I believe it’s one thing that we at all times hoped for however knew that it was probably an insurmountable feat to get there.”

Till this yr, Louisiana had not carried out an execution since 2010 because it has been unable to acquire the mandatory medication. However following Landry’s election, the state accepted using nitrogen fuel, a controversial methodology allowed in solely three different states.

That led to the March 18 execution of Jesse Hoffman Jr. Saving Duncan from an identical destiny has been “probably the most rewarding expertise of my profession,” stated Ferebee, although she acknowledged that prosecutors are nonetheless pushing for the execution of Duncan. “We’re celebrating this victory, however we all know that there’s nonetheless extra to return.”