FORENSICS and LAW in FOCUS @ CSIDDS | News and Trends

Besides new DNA from post-conviction testing, the MS Special Assistant Attorney General Jason L. Davis  says that “new” evidence showing bite marks are now discredited “science” should now be barred. He seemed confused about his own state’s crime lab’s DNA results due to his “new theory” (of course developed by him AFTER hearing the DNA results) that Eddie Lee Howard “could have used gloves.” Let’s just say prosecutors’ use DNA from a weapon all the time to exclude and also include suspects.

Expect a blowout hearing in the Lowndes County courthouse within a year. Some of the big players in the very small bitemark community may show up. I can’t wait to hear how they reconcile the recent opinion from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy suggesting bitemarks be “eradicated” as being not based on science. 

Excerpt from the Associated Press article from 8/8/2015.

Attorney Tucker Carrington with the Mississippi Innocence Project argued in July to the court that new information since Howard’s trial shows the scientific community has rejected the methodology and conclusions West reached in Howard’s case.

Howard’s defense attorneys argue bite-mark evidence has been discredited in many legal circles since Howard’s conviction. However, prosecutors said Howard cannot bring up the issue in a new appeal because he had already raised it once and it was rejected by the courts.

Full AP article