John,

Yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Landry unjustly blocked people on Louisiana's death row from having their cases reviewed for commutation, putting our client Jimmie “Chris” Duncan and other innocent people at risk. The Innocence Project has teamed up with the Innocence Project New Orleans and Capital Appeals Project in calling on Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to direct the board of pardons to review clemency hearings before innocent people are executed. 

Contact Gov. Edwards and urge him to act before it’s too late: 504-608-3330.

On Dec. 18, 1993, 23-month-old Haley Alyse Oliveaux was found unresponsive in a bathtub in West Monroe, Louisiana after Mr. Duncan, the boyfriend of Haley’s mother, left her alone to finish doing the dishes. 

When Mr. Duncan came back and saw Haley, he rushed to help and started to perform CPR. But neither his efforts nor the lifesaving measures from paramedics were successful, and tragically, Haley died that day. Mr. Duncan was inconsolable at the police station, telling officers he had pulled Haley out of the tub and tried to get her to breathe. “I just want to bring her back,” he said.

At first, Mr. Duncan was charged with negligent homicide on the grounds that his inattention had led to the child’s accidental death. But things changed when two disgraced forensic “experts,” Dr. Steven Hayne, a forensic pathologist whose shoddy work has been implicated in at least six wrongful convictions, and Dr. Michael West, a forensic dentist who is responsible for at least seven wrongful convictions, claimed they found evidence of sexual abuse on Haley’s body and bite marks on her cheek matching Mr.Duncan’s teeth. Based on their findings, prosecutors upgraded the charges against Mr. Duncan to first-degree murder, and in 1998, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. 

But Mr. Duncan is an innocent man, condemned to death row through the use of fraudulent “scientific” evidence. Right now, Mr Duncan’s legal team is fighting to get him justice — and you can help.

Gov. Edwards can still take action to save innocent lives. Will you take a moment to contact the governor 504-608-3330 and ask him to act now to direct the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole to hold substantive clemency hearings for death row clemency applicants beginning this month?

The so-called “bite mark evidence” prosecutors used to turn a child’s tragic accidental death into a murder was completely made up — created by disgraced “expert” Dr. West, who used a mold of Mr. Duncan’s teeth to make the marks on the child’s cheek, which were then “matched” to Mr. Duncan. His misconduct was captured on video, but the court didn’t allow the jury to see this damning evidence of fraud. 

During the trial, prosecutors chose not to call Dr. West to the stand, because his reputation was already beginning to crumble. Instead, after successfully excluding from the jury’s consideration the video of Dr. West manufacturing evidence, the prosecution called a different dentist who testified about the bite mark “match.” However, this dentist, like the jury, was never shown the damning video of Dr. West embedding a mold of Mr. Duncan’s teeth into the body and dragging it across her face — essentially creating the bite marks.

In the years since his trial, Mr. Duncan has maintained his innocence, and leading experts have reviewed the evidence and confirmed that there were no bite marks on the body and that the so-called evidence of sexual abuse is today understood to be consistent with normal post-mortem changes in appearance. With further investigation, we also found that prosecutors failed to preserve forensic evidence that could help prove Mr. Duncan’s innocence.

Mr. Duncan’s entire legal team is committed to fighting until we get him the justice he deserves — but we need your help bringing this urgent matter to Gov. Edwards.

Please, contact his office right now and tell him to direct the parole board to hold clemency hearings for death row clemency applicants this month: 504-608-3330. 

We are grateful for your support,

Chris Fabricant
Director of Strategic Litigation
Innocence Project