Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana.
asserted
he → wipe → Louisiana
Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon.
asserted
he → ’ → afternoon
And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.
asserted
he → suspect → 350
But, he said, “I feel safe here.
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I → say → ?
I mean, I’ve been on death row.
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I → mean → row
I feel safe anywhere.”
Duncan had spent the last three decades trying to prove his innocence after a jury convicted him of killing his former girlfriend’s toddler.
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jury → feel → toddler
An investigation by Verite News and ProPublica last year showed that prosecutors had relied on key evidence that appeared to be fabricated by a pair of forensics experts whose use of bite mark analysis has since been widely discredited as junk science.
asserted
use → show → science
Nevertheless, Louisiana prosecutors continued to argue that Duncan should be put to death.
asserted
Duncan → continue → death
The threat became ever more real as Gov. Jeff Landry began expediting executions, despite the state’s track record of convicting and sentencing to death people later found to be innocent.
asserted
Landry → become → people
It wasn’t until June that the Louisiana Supreme Court threw out Duncan’s murder conviction, ruling that the bite marks found on the child’s body, the only physical proof tying Duncan to the alleged crime, could not have been made by a human.
uncertain
marks → throw → human
Chief Justice John Weimer was so outraged by the prosecution of Duncan that he compared it to 17th-century witch trials.
asserted
he → outrage → trials
“We now look back at those practices as asinine and absurd” with “no basis whatsoever in logic,” he wrote.
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he → look → logic
Some of the evidence against Duncan, he said, was “similarly specious.”
asserted
he → say → Duncan
The trauma that the state imposed on Duncan as a result of his wrongful conviction continues today.
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state → impose → conviction
Although Louisiana’s top jurist tore apart the state’s case against Duncan, the 57-year-old West Monroe native still isn’t truly free.
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native → tear → Duncan
Steve Tew, district attorney for Ouachita Parish, where the crime allegedly took place, had warned the justices during an April hearing that he would retry Duncan if the court vacated his conviction.
uncertain
court → take → conviction
Tew, who did not respond to requests for comment, has said in court that he still believes that Duncan is not only guilty but deserves to be executed.
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Duncan → respond → court
Tew has until next June to decide on a retrial, though his term ends in January and he is not running for reelection.
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he → have → reelection
Until then, Duncan said, he is trapped in limbo, both mentally and financially.
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he → say → limbo
He came out of Angola with nothing in the bank and now makes $17 an hour working the night shift at Walmart unloading and stocking freight.
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He → come → freight
While he enjoys the job — he was named employee of the month in June — Duncan said he is barely scraping by.
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he → enjoy → June
There is a state restitution program designed to compensate exonerees up to $480,000 over a decade for wrongful convictions, but he is not eligible until either the district attorney decides not to retry him or he is acquitted in another trial, which can take years.
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which → be → years
And even then, there is no guarantee he will ever be awarded any money.
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he → be → money
Attorney General Liz Murrill has opposed nearly all applications for compensation, telling lawmakers last year that defending the state against such claims consumes an enormous amount of time and resources and that the fund should be abolished altogether.
uncertain
fund → oppose → time
“The foreseeable future for me is the year between now and when they can’t prosecute me no more.
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they → prosecute → me
That’s the only future I get to play with,” Duncan said.
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Duncan → ’ → ?
“I’m 100% factually innocent, but not 100% free from prosecution.
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I → ’m → prosecution
Surviving His First Decade in Angola
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Surviving → survive → Angola
Over the course of more than six hours of interviews with Verite News and ProPublica, Duncan described in harrowing detail the nightmare he lived since police arrested him on Dec. 18, 1993.
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police → describe → Dec.
By far the worst of it all, he said, was thinking that his neighbors, friends and even relatives could believe he had committed such an unspeakable crime against a child.
uncertain
he → say → child
It felt as if everything he was as a person was “being torn out of you, violently, in an emotionally painful way,” Duncan said.
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Duncan → feel → way
“Just having your identity eviscerated.
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identity → have → ?
Duncan was babysitting Haley Oliveaux in the home he shared with the girl’s mother, Allison Layton Statham, in West Monroe when the 23-month-old died.
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old → babysitte → Monroe
Duncan told law enforcement he had put the child in the bath, then went to wash dishes.
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he → tell → dishes
When he heard a noise coming from the bathroom, he rushed to check on her and found Haley floating face down in the water.
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Haley → hear → water
She was pronounced dead a few hours later.
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She → pronounce → ?
Police initially arrested Duncan for negligent homicide, but prosecutors upped the charge to first-degree murder after pathologist Steven Hayne and dentist Michael West conducted Haley’s medical exam and claimed they discovered evidence, including the purported bite marks, that she had been sexually assaulted and intentionally drowned.
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she → arrest → marks
Following two weeks of testimony during the trial in 1998, the jury found Duncan guilty; months later, the 30-year-old was sentenced to death.
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old → follow → death
His first decade at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola was the hardest, Duncan said.
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Duncan → say → Angola
Not only did he lose his initial appeal in 2002, and with it the dream he could convince the courts of his innocence, but he was forced to watch helplessly as his family gradually fell to pieces.
uncertain
family → lose → pieces
…and 99 more, not listed.
