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Louisiana Man Freed on $150,000 Bail After 27 Years on Death Row as Conviction Overturned

Jimmie Duncan, 57, was released on $150,000 bond after a judge overturned his 1998 conviction and found him "factually innocent" in the 1993 death of a 23-month-old girl. The ruling criticized bite-mark analysis as unreliable and cited experts who said the toddler likely drowned accidentally. The judge also found Duncan's trial counsel ineffective. The decision is being appealed to the state high court, with oral arguments set for early next year.

01:19 PM, 11/29/2025Society
Louisiana Man Freed on $150,000 Bail After 27 Years on Death Row as Conviction Overturned

Jimmie Duncan, 57, was released on $150,000 bond this week after a judge overturned his 1998 conviction in the 1993 death of his girlfriend's toddler and ruled that he is "factually innocent." Duncan had spent 27 years on Louisiana's death row.

4th Judicial District Judge Alvin Sharp issued the ruling earlier this year after defense experts challenged critical forensic evidence used at trial. Prosecutors had relied in part on what they described as bite-mark matches between the child and Duncan; the judge and defense experts called that analysis unreliable. In his decision, Judge Sharp cited an expert for the defense who described bite-mark comparison as "junk science" and "not scientifically defensible." Two independent experts concluded the child’s injuries were consistent with accidental drowning rather than homicide.

"His incarceration was a gross miscarriage of justice," said Duncan's attorney, Chris Fabricant. "His execution would have been a moral outrage."

The ruling also found that Duncan’s trial attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The Innocence Project, which has represented Duncan, says the techniques used in his case have contributed to dozens of wrongful convictions nationwide and that false or misleading forensic evidence has been a factor in roughly one-quarter of documented exonerations since 1989.

The district attorney's office that prosecuted the case has announced plans to appeal the finding of factual innocence to the state's highest court; oral arguments are scheduled for early next year. Duncan's release on bond is a temporary development while the appeals process proceeds.

This development raises broader concerns about flawed forensic methods, the reliability of certain expert testimony, and the quality of legal representation in capital cases.

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