On April 20, 2017, after 24 years in prison, Ledell Lee was executed for the 1993 murder of Debra Reese in Jacksonville, Arkansas. Lee always maintained his innocence — from the day he was arrested to the day he was executed — yet he was denied DNA testing that could have proven his innocence.
That’s why the Innocence Project and our partners are suing the city of Jacksonville on behalf of Lee’s sister Patricia Young to release DNA and fingerprints found at the crime scene. Will you stand with us in our pursuit of the truth?
Despite significant scientific advancements since Lee’s trial, the evidence has never been tested through modern DNA testing methods or run through national databases. During Lee’s trial in the '90s, the prosecution’s own experts admitted that the results of several of its forensic tests were “inconclusive,” but the prosecution inflated the significance of these test results, leading to Lee’s conviction.
In the two years since Lee’s execution — which was rapidly carried out because the state's supply of lethal injection drugs was about to expire — the Innocence Project and ACLU have continued to investigate his case and seek justice for his family.
Photos of Ledell Lee and his family growing up courtesy of the Young family.
Today’s lawsuit, jointly filed with the ACLU, the ACLU of Arkansas, the law firm Hogan Lovells US LLP, and Little Rock attorney John Tull, comes as new analysis from top forensic experts provides reason to believe Lee may have been executed for a crime he did not commit.
Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
