Lawyers from the Mississippi Innocence Project asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to reexamine the case of Eddie Lee Howard Jr., a Columbus man put on death row in 1992.
A Lowndes County jury convicted Howard of the rape and murder of Georgia Kemp, 82, in Columbus. During the trail, jurors were presented with “bite-mark evidence,” which has since been largely debunked.
The Innocence Project is asking the state Supreme Court to award Howard a new trial.
At least two dozen people convicted of rape and murder as a result of bite-mark analysis have been exonerated since 2000, according to a 2013 Associated Press report.
Bite-mark analysts during Howard’s trial asserted that dental impressions were as unique as fingerprints and could be used to identify who inflicted wounds on a victim. The only physical evidence linking Howard to Kemp’s murder were dental impressions that Michael West, a Hattiesburg dentist, a bite-mark expert, claimed matched wounds on her body.
In 2012, West said bite-mark evidence was not dependable.
Tucker Carrington, the director of the Innocence Project, told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday that West’s error rate was “abysmal.”
“Looking back,” Carrington said, “I don’t know of a case where Dr. West has ever been correct.”
A state prosecutor who attended the hearing Tuesday told the court he could not name a case where West’s testimony was accurate. The prosecutor added, though, that there was still dissention within the scientific community over how accurate bite-mark evidence could be.
District Attorney Forrest Allgood, whose office prosecuted Howard, told The Dispatch this week that bite-mark analysis was not just accepted, but commonly used in the 1990s.
“It’s very situational,” Allgood said. “Hindsight is always 20/20.”
The Innocence Project, in asking the state Supreme Court to give Howard a new trial, also pointed out that Howard was allowed to act as his own lawyer during his first trial, despite “severe mental health issues that the trial court failed to address.”
The Innocence Project also claims Howard, during his second trial, had ineffective counsel.
The hearing Tuesday lasted about an hour and a half.
A formal ruling from the state Supreme Court is expected at a later date.
The Innocence Project serves Mississippi state prisoners who are serving long periods in prison and have claimed they were wrongfully convicted.
When Howard was convicted, he was 38. He turns 62 on Saturday.
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