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POST: "The Innocence Project Withdraws Jimmie Duncan’s Clemency Petition in Louisiana" published by The Innocence Project on December 5, 2023.
SUB-HEADING: "The State has shown it is not taking the process of reviewing death row clemency petitions seriously, and Mr. Duncan has new, compelling evidence of innocence.
GIST: "The Innocence Project is withdrawing its clemency petition in the case of Jimmie Duncan in Louisiana.
The State has shown it is not taking the process of reviewing death row clemency petitions seriously, and Mr. Duncan has new, compelling evidence of innocence that must be considered.
When Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called on the state legislature to abolish executions in April, Mr. Duncan was one of 56 people on death row to petition the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole for clemency.
The Board, with guidance from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry — an ardent supporter of the death penalty — summarily denied those petitions.
The Board later agreed, at Gov. Edwards’ urging, to hold clemency hearings on at least some of thesepetitions; but in September, a group of Louisiana district attorneys and Attorney General Landry sued the board to block them.
As a result, people on Louisiana’s death row are now left with a sham process: instead of full hearings on the merits of their claims, the Board has given only a few people an administrative review, an abbreviated proceeding in which the person on death row is not even present.
We are gravely concerned that participating in this process will deny meaningful consideration of the facts of Mr. Duncan’s case, including the compelling evidence of his innocence.
Mr. Duncan was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1998 for a crime that never occurred.
Using what is now understood to be fraudulent evidence created by two notorious forensic “experts” —individuals responsible for at least eight wrongful convictions —the State painted what was in fact a tragic accident as a brutal rape and murder.
In fact, there is a video showing one of these “experts”—Michael West —pressing a mold of Mr. Duncan’s teeth into the victim’s skin, creating evidence of bite marks where there were none.
Neither the jury nor the State’s testifying expert ever saw this evidence and, as a result, Mr. Duncan was convicted and sent to death row, where he has remained for a quarter-century.
Despite this forensic fraud and compelling evidence of Mr. Duncan’s innocence, Louisiana’s justice system is not affording Mr. Duncan his day in court.
Louisiana’s death penalty system is profoundly broken.
Statistics compiled by the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project show a stark racial disparity in death sentences: 42 of the 57 people on Louisiana’s death row (74%) are people of color; 38 of them (67%) are Black.
There are at least 23 people with evidence of intellectual disability on death row, even though executing people who have intellectual disability is unconstitutional.
Furthermore, Louisiana’s death penalty is highly error prone, with an alarming 83% reversal rate in capital cases since 1976.
In fact, nine people have been exonerated from death row since 1999. Mr. Duncan’s claims of innocence must be heard lest Louisiana commit a further egregious and irreversible injustice."
The entire post can be read at:
https://innocenceproject.org/the-innocence-project-withdraws-jimmie-duncans-clemency-petition-in-louisiana/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
