Entries tagged with “Dr. Steven Hayne”
Jul 06, 2026
Louisiana Supreme Court Affirms Lower Court’s Vacatur and Factual Innocence Finding for Former Death-Sentenced Man, Jimmie Duncan
On June 29, 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s decision finding Jimmie Duncan factually innocent and vacating his first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. Mr. Duncan was sentenced to death for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s toddler, Haley Oliveaux, largely based on faulty bite mark evidence. In April 2025, Louisiana District Court Judge Alvin Sharp held that expert testimony presented during an evidentiary hearing demonstrated…
Apr 28, 2025
Louisiana Judge Sets Aside Jimmie Duncan’s Conviction and Death Sentence Based on “No Longer Valid” Bite Mark Evidence
On April 24, 2025, Louisiana District Court Judge Alvin Sharp set aside Jimmie Duncan’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence. Mr. Duncan was sentenced to death for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s toddler largely based on faulty bite mark evidence. Judge Sharp, in a decision that came after a September 2024 evidentiary hearing, held that expert testimony presented during this hearing demonstrated the bite mark analysis used against Mr. Duncan is“no…
Issues
Sep 01, 2020
Mississippi Supreme Court Grants New Trial to Eddie Howard, Sentenced to Death by Junk Bite-Mark Evidence
The Mississippi Supreme Court has granted a new trial to death-row prisoner Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. (pictured), finding that the combination of scientifically invalid bite-mark evidence used to convict him and new DNA evidence entitled him to a new trial in the 1992 murder and alleged rape of an 84-year-old…
Issues
Sep 24, 2018
Questionable Ruling Grants Jeffrey Havard New Sentencing but Not New Trial in Controversial “Shaken Baby” Case
Sixteen years after a notorious and now-discredited forensic witness told a Mississippi jury that Jeffrey Havard had sexually abused and shaken his girlfriend’s six-month-old daughter to death, Havard’s death sentence — but not his conviction — has been overturned. On September 14, 2018, Adams County Circuit Judge Forrest Johnson ruled that state pathologist Steven Hayne’s recantation of his diagnosis that infant Chloe Britt had been…