PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In opposing the state’s motion to consolidate, Duncan’s attorneys noted that he has spent “almost 32 years incarcerated, 27 of which have been on death row.” And now that Sharp has declared him factually innocent, it is time for the court to consider his bail request in a timely manner, they said in an Aug. 22 filing."
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STORY: "Prosecutors ask state’s highest court to reinstate death row inmate Jimmie Duncan’s conviction." by Reporter Richard A. Webster, published by Verite News on September 1, 2024. (Experienced investigative reporter Rich Webster joins Verite after spending the past two and a half years as a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.)
GIST: "More than a month after a state judge first heard longtime Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie Duncan’s motion to be released on bail, the case remains at a standstill amid a flurry of legal filings from state prosecutors hoping to keep him in prison, all of which are now before the state’s highest court.
Since Judge Alvin Sharp nullified Duncan’s 1998 murder conviction in April, the Ouachita Parish District Attorney’s Office has filed a series of motions that have indefinitely delayed a decision on whether to release the 56-year-old West Monroe man pending a new trial. In the meantime, Duncan — whom Sharp declared factually innocent of the crime — continues to wait from inside his cell at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Duncan was convicted of murdering 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux, his then-girlfriend’s daughter, in 1993. In vacating his conviction, Judge Alvin Sharp noted that a forensic analysis performed on the girl purporting to match marks on her body to Duncan’s teeth — a key piece of evidence in the trial — was based on widely discredited science. He also found that Duncan’s original attorney provided him ineffective assistance at his trial.
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.
Robert S. Tew, district attorney for the 4th Judicial District in Ouachita Parish, and Michael Ruddick, the lead prosecutor in the case, in June asked the state 2nd District Court of Appeal to overturn Sharp’s April ruling and reinstate Duncan’s death sentence.
Tew’s office maintains that the type of bite mark analysis used against Duncan — which has since been widely condemned as junk science over the past several decades — was an accepted method at the time of the trial and that some experts still consider it to be useful. Since 1982, there have been 32 people in the United States who were convicted largely due to similar bite mark evidence and later exonerated, according to the Innocence Project.
The appeals court did not rule on the matter, instead passing it along to the Louisiana State Supreme court.
During a three-day hearing in July to consider Duncan’s request for bail, Ruddick filed two motions with Sharp: one to stay the hearing and another to recuse Sharp. The prosecutor claimed that the judge’s finding of innocence makes him unfit to decide whether or not to release Duncan. Sharp, who did not stay the hearing, rejected the recusal motion, prompting the DA’s office to take his decision to the 2nd Circuit, which again passed it along to the state Supreme Court.
In their latest motion, filed Aug. 14, Tew and Ruddick asked the court to consolidate all Duncan-related matters, so they can be considered together. The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling or schedule oral arguments.
In opposing the state’s motion to consolidate, Duncan’s attorneys noted that he has spent “almost 32 years incarcerated, 27 of which have been on death row.” And now that Sharp has declared him factually innocent, it is time for the court to consider his bail request in a timely manner, they said in an Aug. 22 filing.
The district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment."
The entire story can be read at:
https://veritenews.org/2025/09/01/jimmie-duncan-death-row-bail-state-supreme-court/
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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