Entries tagged with “Mississippi Innocence Project

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Sep 30, 2021

Sherwood Brown Exonerated in Mississippi, 186th Death-Row Exoneration Since 1973

Sherwood Brown has been exon­er­at­ed of the charges that sent him to death row in Mississippi in 1995 for a triple mur­der he did not com­mit. On August 24, 2021, DeSoto County Circuit Court Judge Jimmy McClure grant­ed a pros­e­cu­tion motion to dis­miss charges against Brown (pic­tured after his release), who was released lat­er that day after hav­ing spent 26 years on the state’s death row or fac­ing the prospects of a capital…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Race

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Jan 12, 2021

Convicted by False Forensic Evidence, Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. Exonerated From Mississippi Death Row After 26 Years

Eddie Lee Howard, Jr., con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death based on the false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny of a since dis­graced pros­e­cu­tion expert wit­ness, has been exon­er­at­ed after near­ly 26 years on Mississippis death row. He is the 174th for­mer death-row pris­on­er exon­er­at­ed in the U.S. since 1973 and the sixth in…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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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 white…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Representation

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Sep 06, 2016

Mississippi Attorney General Tries to Remove Defense Lawyers Who Challenged Suspect Bitemark Evidence

Attorneys for Mississippi death row pris­on­er Eddie Lee Howard (pic­tured) are seek­ing to prove his inno­cence and chal­leng­ing the ques­tion­able expert bite mark tes­ti­mo­ny that per­suad­ed jurors to con­vict him and sen­tence him to death in 1992. As part of the attack on that evi­dence, Howard’s lawyers recent­ly deposed Michael West, the dis­cred­it­ed foren­sic odon­tol­o­gist who tes­ti­fied against Howard and many oth­er defen­dants in the 1990s, pri­mar­i­ly in Mississippi and…