Louisiana Prosecutors Seek to Reinstate a Vacated Death Penalty Conviction

In April 2025, a Louisiana man who spent nearly three decades on death row for the 1998 murder of his then-girlfriend’s daughter had his conviction overturned by a district judge following a review of forensic analysis that the inmate’s legal team argued was based on “junk science.” Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Alvin Sharp threw out Jimmie Duncan’s first-degree murder conviction. The judge heard expert testimony that the bite mark analysis was “not scientifically defensible” and that death appeared to be the result of “accidental drowning.”

Prosecutors relied on bite mark analysis and an autopsy performed by two experts — later linked to wrongful convictions — whom Duncan’s legal team described as discredited “charlatans.” Duncan has long maintained his innocence.

The effort to secure Duncan’s freedom has become more urgent in recent months due to a renewed push by Gov. Jeff Landry (R) to restart executions in Louisiana following a decade-plus pause. After years in which the state was unable to secure suitable drugs for lethal injections, state lawmakers at Landry’s urging last year added nitrogen gas poisoning to the list of legally approved execution methods. In March, the state used nitrogen hypoxia to conduct its first execution since 2010.

Last month, prosecutors in Ouachita Parish have asked a state appeals court to reinstate the death sentence. Robert S. Tew, district attorney for Ouachita and Morehouse parishes, argued in a June 16 filing to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal that bite mark evidence was an accepted science at the time of Duncan’s trial and that some experts still consider it to be a useful forensic methodology.  

Tew also defended the reputation of Dr. Stephen Hayne, who conducted the autopsy of 23-month-old Haley Oliveaux along with forensic dentist Michael West. Hayne and West determined that Haley was bitten, sexually assaulted and forcibly drowned. The forensic pair worked together in the 1990s and early 2000s, providing analysis and testimony in cases in Louisiana and Mississippi. But much of their work has since been discredited.

“Judge Alvin Sharp found (in April) what we have always known – Mr. Duncan is an innocent man. Yet the State appears unwilling to acknowledge the facts and to take steps to rewrite this massive injustice,” Duncan’s legal team wrote in a statement. “The fraudulent bite mark and forensic evidence used to convict him for the drowning death of Haley Oliveaux were manufactured by notorious forensic ‘experts’ Dr. Michael West and Dr. Steven Hayne, who have a storied history of wrongful convictions.”

You can read more about Duncan's case at "Prosecutors ask appeals court to reinstate death sentence for Jimmie Duncan" in Verite News, a non-profit newsroom that aims to voice to the voiceless, raising awareness, and finding the common ground that produces a society that values all human resources and raising the standards of living for all.