Jimmy Duncan. Louisiana: (Junk bite-mark 'science); From our 'Here we go again - why can't they just let go?' department: Prosecutors in Ouachita Parish have asked a state appeals court to reinstate the death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 27-year-old murder conviction was nullified in April after his attorneys argued that it was based in part on shoddy forensic evidence, WWNO (Louisiana) New Orleans Public Radio, (Verite News) reports, noting that: " Robert S. Tew, district attorney for Ouachita and Morehouse parishes, argued in a June 16 filing to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal that bite mark evidence was an accepted science at the time of Duncan’s trial and that some experts still consider it to be a useful forensic methodology. Tew also defended the reputation of Dr. Stephen Hayne, who conducted the autopsy of 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux along with forensic dentist Michael West. Hayne and West determined that Haley was bitten, sexually assaulted and forcibly drowned."

STORY "Prosecutors ask appeals court to reinstate death sentence for Jimmie Duncan," by Reporter Richard A. Webster, published by   WWNO (New Orleans Public Radio, Verite News, )on June 18, 2025. (Before coming to Verite News, Richard A. Webster spent the past two and a half years as a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. He investigated allegations of abuse against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and claims of racial and economic inequities within Louisiana’s Road Home recovery program following Hurricane Katrina. Webster previously was a member of The Times-Picayune’s investigative team, reporting on numerous special projects including “The Children of Central City,” an in-depth look at childhood trauma through the lens of a youth football team; “A Fragile State,” a multi-part series on Louisiana’s mental health care system; and “Dying at OPP,” which examined the deaths of inmates in Orleans Parish Prison.")

GIST: "Prosecutors in Ouachita Parish have asked a state appeals court to reinstate the death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 27-year-old murder conviction was nullified in April after his attorneys argued that it was based in part on shoddy forensic evidence.

The West Monroe native was convicted in 1998 of killing his then-girlfriend’s daughter, but a district court ruled that Duncan was innocent. Judge Alvin Sharp, of the 4th Judicial District, overturned Duncan’s conviction, which, Sharp said, was based in part on bite mark evidence that experts now say is junk science.

As ProPublica and Verite News reported in March, the effort to secure Duncan’s freedom has become more urgent in recent months due to a renewed push by Gov. Jeff Landry to restart executions in the state following a decade-plus pause. After years in which the state was unable to secure suitable drugs for lethal injections, state lawmakers at Landry’s urging last year added nitrogen gas poisoning to the list of legally approved execution methods. In March, the state used nitrogen hypoxia to conduct its first execution since 2010.

Robert S. Tew, district attorney for Ouachita and Morehouse parishes, argued in a June 16 filing to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal that bite mark evidence was an accepted science at the time of Duncan’s trial and that some experts still consider it to be a useful forensic methodology.

Tew also defended the reputation of Dr. Stephen Hayne, who conducted the autopsy of 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux along with forensic dentist Michael West. Hayne and West determined that Haley was bitten, sexually assaulted and forcibly drowned."

The entire story June 18, 2025  story can be read at:

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PREVIOUS NPR STORY: "Louisiana judge nullifies death row inmate’s murder conviction that was based on junk science, Reporter  Richard A. Webster (Verite News), April 28, 2025."

A Louisiana judge this week set aside the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence of Jimmie Chris Duncan, whose 1998 conviction for killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter was based in part on bite mark evidence that experts now say is junk science.

The pair worked together in the 1990s and early 2000s, providing analysis and testimony in cases in Louisiana and Mississippi. But much of their work has since been discredited.

The district attorney’s office noted that Hayne, who died in 2020, served as the pathologist for the district for over a decade and during that time “there has been no cases overturned because of Dr. Hayne’s autopsy.”

This wasn’t the case in Mississippi, where Hayne and West were based for the bulk of their careers. Over the past 27 years, nine prisoners have been set free after being convicted in part on inaccurate evidence given by West and Hayne. Three of those men were on death row.

Duncan was the last person awaiting an execution based on the pair’s work, which Sharp said in his ruling appeared “questionable at best.”

Duncan was babysitting Haley at the house they shared with Haley’s mother in West Monroe on Dec. 18, 1993. He said he had left her alone in the bathtub while he washed dishes. At some point, he said he heard a loud noise from the bathroom. When he went to check on Haley, he found her floating face down in the water. She was pronounced dead a few hours later.

Though Duncan claimed Haley’s death was a tragic accident, law enforcement charged him with first-degree murder after Hayne and West examined the girl’s body and told police she was sexually assaulted and intentionally drowned. After about two weeks of testimony in 1998, the jury found Duncan guilty and sentenced him to death.

Duncan’s post-conviction attorneys later uncovered evidence that, they said, proves his innocence. This includes a jailhouse informant, Michael Cruse, who the defense claims offered testimony against Duncan in exchange for lenience, and who later recanted his testimony; previous head injuries Haley suffered that might explain her death; and a video in which West can be seen grinding a cast of Duncan’s teeth into Haley’s body. West later claimed those bite marks, which the defense says the forensic dentist manufactured, were a match for Duncan’s teeth.

“Judge Alvin Sharp found what we have always known – Mr. Duncan is an innocent man. Yet the State appears unwilling to acknowledge the facts and to take steps to rewrite this massive injustice,” Duncan’s legal team wrote in a statement Wednesday. “The fraudulent bite mark and forensic evidence used to convict him for the drowning death of Haley Oliveaux were manufactured by notorious forensic ‘experts’ Dr. Michael West and Dr. Steven Hayne, who have a storied history of wrongful convictions.”

West has previously explained the video by saying he was simply using what he called a “direct comparison” technique, in which he presses a mold of a person’s teeth directly onto the location of suspected bite marks because it provides the most accurate results, according to a 2020 interview with Oxygen.com.

https://www.wwno.org/law/2025-06-18/prosecutors-ask-appeals-court-to-reinstate-death-sentence-for-jimmie-duncan

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/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985

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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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