BACKGROUND: 1: From 'Forensic: Link Below: " Last week, Jimmie “Chris” Duncan was released on bail after 27 years on Louisiana’s death row following a wrongful conviction for the murder of his girlfriend’s toddler. The initial charge was based on bite mark analysis—now considered junk science—proffered by discredited forensic analysts Michael West and Steven Hayne, who are responsible for at least nine other wrongful convictions. Until last week, Duncan was the only known person still on death row as a result of the flawed testimony of Hayne and West. Together, the nine men and women wrongfully convicted by the “experts” spent more than a century wrongfully imprisoned, according to the Innocence Project." Additionally, in the time since Duncan’s trial, bite mark matching and analysis—even the non-fraudulent kind—has been exposed as junk science and discredited in the court of law."
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BACKGROUND 2: : From a previous post of this Blog(December 3, 2025 ): Last week, Jimmie “Chris” Duncan was released on bail after 27 years on Louisiana’s death row following a wrongful conviction for the murder of his girlfriend’s toddler. The initial charge was based on bite mark analysis—now considered junk science—proffered by discredited forensic analysts Michael West and Steven Hayne, who are responsible for at least nine other wrongful convictions. Until last week, Duncan was the only known person still on death row as a result of the flawed testimony of Hayne and West. Together, the nine men and women wrongfully convicted by the “experts” spent more than a century wrongfully imprisoned, according to the Innocence Project. Additionally, in the time since Duncan’s trial, bite mark matching and analysis—even the non-fraudulent kind—has been exposed as junk science and discredited in the court of law.
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The district attorney’s aggressive and rushed actions bear the hallmarks of a coordinated effort to harass Mr. Duncan, inflict additional pain on Haley’s family, and create unnecessary emotional distress for everyone connected to this case. Haley deserves to rest in peace. Mr. Duncan deserves to enjoy his freedom after spending more than 30 years on death row for a crime that never occurred.'
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STATEMENT: Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s Legal Team Responds to Troubling DNA Warrant, published by The Innocence Project, on September 21, 2026.
GIST: "While we anticipated that District Attorney Robert S. Tew would pursue new charges against Jimmie “Chris” Duncan and were aware that the state had obtained a warrant for his DNA as part of its reinvestigation, we are deeply troubled by the decision to seek DNA from Haley Oliveaux’s family and, most shockingly, to seek the exhumation of Haley’s body.
In response to the warrant targeting Mr. Duncan, we have filed an emergency motion to stay enforcement and requested an expedited hearing.
The district attorney’s aggressive and rushed actions bear the hallmarks of a coordinated effort to harass Mr. Duncan, inflict additional pain on Haley’s family, and create unnecessary emotional distress for everyone connected to this case.
Haley deserves to rest in peace. Mr. Duncan deserves to enjoy his freedom after spending more than 30 years on death row for a crime that never occurred.
As we await the court’s decision on our emergency motion, we felt compelled to express our profound disappointment with the district attorney’s actions and remain hopeful that reason and restraint will ultimately prevail."
The entire statement can be read at:
https://innocenceproject.org/news/statement-jimmie-chris-duncans-legal-team-responds-to-troubling-dna-warrant/
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. 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. 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; 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!
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STATEMENT: Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s Legal Team Responds to Troubling DNA Warrant, published by The Innocence Project, on September 21, 2026.
GIST: "While we anticipated that District Attorney Robert S. Tew would pursue new charges against Jimmie “Chris” Duncan and were aware that the state had obtained a warrant for his DNA as part of its reinvestigation, we are deeply troubled by the decision to seek DNA from Haley Oliveaux’s family and, most shockingly, to seek the exhumation of Haley’s body.
In response to the warrant targeting Mr. Duncan, we have filed an emergency motion to stay enforcement and requested an expedited hearing.
The district attorney’s aggressive and rushed actions bear the hallmarks of a coordinated effort to harass Mr. Duncan, inflict additional pain on Haley’s family, and create unnecessary emotional distress for everyone connected to this case.
Haley deserves to rest in peace. Mr. Duncan deserves to enjoy his freedom after spending more than 30 years on death row for a crime that never occurred.
As we await the court’s decision on our emergency motion, we felt compelled to express our profound disappointment with the district attorney’s actions and remain hopeful that reason and restraint will ultimately prevail."
The entire statement can be read at:
https://innocenceproject.org/news/statement-jimmie-chris-duncans-legal-team-responds-to-troubling-dna-warrant/
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. 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. 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; 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!
