On November 26, 2025, Jimmie Duncan was released on bail from Louisiana’s Angola prison after spending 27 years on death row for a crime that a court now says never occurred. Ouachita Parish District Attorney Robert Tew opposed Mr. Duncan’s release on bail and maintains that he is guilty of rape and murder. Mr. Duncan’s attorneys dispute this and say Judge Alvin Sharp’s bail ruling “acknowledged the clear and convincing evidence showing Mr. Duncan is factually innocent.”
“[T]his court finds that a proper assessment [under relevant law] reveals there are not legally sufficient grounds upon which to prosecute [Mr. Duncan] and, thus, [Mr. Duncan] is entitled to bail as though he had not been convicted of the offense in question.”
Last April, Judge Sharp set aside Mr. Duncan’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. Mr. Duncan was sentenced to death in 1998 for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s toddler based largely on questionable “bite-mark” evidence. His conviction relied on forensic evidence and testimony provided by dentist Dr. Michael West and pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose work has been discredited. Judge Sharp held that expert testimony demonstrated the bite mark analysis used against Mr. Duncan is “no longer valid” and “not scientifically defensible.” According to an investigation by ProPublica, Mr. Duncan stands to be the tenth individual freed from prison after it was proven that their convictions were based at least in part on inaccurate evidence stemming from the work of these two doctors using questionable forensic techniques now characterized by many experts as “junk science.”
Mr. Duncan was arrested in 1993 for the murder of Haley Oliveaux, the 23-month-old daughter of his girlfriend. He was found guilty based largely on now-discredited bite mark evidence presented by Drs. West and Hayne. New expert testimony, presented over the past year and cited by Judge Sharp in his bail order, suggests that the child’s death resulted not from homicide but from accidental drowning. Judge Sharp also cited evidence of previous head injuries Haley had suffered that could have explained her death.
Mr. Duncan has long maintained his innocence, explaining that he left Haley in the bathtub alone while he washed dishes, and returned to find her floating face down. Haley’s mother, Allison Layton Statham, testified at Mr. Duncan’s first bail hearing in July 2025, that she believed him to be innocent.
“Mr. Duncan is one step closer to the life stripped away from him so many years ago, and we are committed to reaching a moment when he walks as a fully free, innocent man.”
In opposing bail for Mr. Duncan, the Ouachita District Attorney’s Office called him “a safety risk not only to the victim’s family, but also the general public.” Mr. Duncan’s release was welcomed by his family and the surviving relatives of Haley’s family. While in Angola prison, Mr. Duncan acted as a GED tutor for others on death row and was active in the prison ministry program. The state has appealed the ruling made earlier this year that found Mr. Duncan factually innocent and vacated his conviction. The case is scheduled to be heard in early 2026.
Twelve individuals have been exonerated and freed from Louisiana’s death row since 1973.
Louisiana death row inmate released on bail after conviction overturned in child’s death nearly 3 decades later, CBS/AP, Nov. 27, 2025; Nancy Carillo, Louisiana Man Exonerated After 27 Years on Death Row, Vanguard News Group, Dec. 2, 2025; Jimmie “Chris” Duncan is released after 27 years on Louisiana Death Row, Innocence Project, Nov. 26, 2025; Richard Webster, Louisiana Judge Nullifies Death Row Inmate’s Murder Conviction That Was Based on Junk Science, Verite News, Apr. 25, 2025
