Louisiana Weekly

deadline that his lawyers consider a small victory because prosecutors aren’t compelled to answer unless a judge requires it. Tew was elected to the post 25 years after Duncan was sentenced to death. Tew has not responded to a message left with his office. “We have an innocent client on death row and are eager to press his case,” said Brief, the Innocence Project attorney.◊ series “The Innocence Files.” Levon Brooks was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the 1990 rape and murder of a 3- year-old girl in Noxubee County, Mississippi. He would serve 16 years in prison before DNA evi- dence led to his exoneration. West performed bite analysis in the case, and Hayne conclud- ed Brooks was responsible for the marks. “Usually you find in these aggressive, violent sexual attacks, that’s where you’ll find a lot of bite marks,” West said in an interview featured in “The Innocence Files. “(I) don’t really know if I am qualified to get into all of the sociology or psy- chology of it, but they turn ani- malistic.” In the strikingly similar rape and killing of another 3-year-old girl in Noxubee County from 1992, Kennedy Brewer was sen- tenced to death after Hayne and West again provided correspon- ding dental evidence. Brewer was exonerated after 15 years on death row after Justin Jefferson confessed to killing both young girls. He told investi- gators he never bit either of them. For a report The New Republic published in March, journalist Lara Bazelon interviewed West and asked him about the claims Duncan’s attorneys make in the petition seeking to clear him in the death of Haley Oliveaux. “They called them injuries, honey,” West told Bazelon. “Until you match them up with someone’s dentition, they are just injuries.” The dentist said he did not tes- tify at Duncan’s trial because he “would have broke down and cried.” Haley “could have been my daughter’s twin,” he said. Hayne was fired as Mississippi state pathologist in 2008, after having performed 80 percent of all forensic exams in the state for more than 20 years, accord- ing to WLBT-TV. He has declined to discuss the flood of questions that surround his and West’s work. The New Republic report counts at least seven convictions vacated through exonerations for which evidence Hayne and West provided evidence. More than two dozen other people who were incarcerated in bite mark cases nationwide have since been released, with their attorneys successfully arguing against what they called “junk science.” In addition to what they con- sider faulty forensic evidence, Duncan’s legal team also notes the prosecution excluded Haley Oliveaux’s medical history. It includes multiple seizures and resulting head injuries. Just three weeks before she died, the girl was in Duncan’s care when a small dresser fell and caused a head wound. A state investigation after the accident found no evidence of child abuse. Haley’s mother and grandmother were told about her tendency for seizures and were advised not to leave her alone in the bathtub. Duncan’s attorneys ATTORNEY Applying for Social Security Disability or Appealing a Denied Claim? Call Bill Gordon & Assoc. Our case managers simplify the process & work hard to help with your case. Call 1-844-883-2045 FREE Consultation. 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Donate your car, truck, or SUV to assist the blind and visually impaired. Arrange a swift, no-cost vehi- cle pickup and secure a gener- ous year-end tax credit. Call Heritage for the Blind today at 1-888-481-1894 ________________________ YOUR AD HERE! Looking to promote your services or find a new hire? Deliver your classi- fied message statewide for as little as $265 per week through the Louisiana Press Associa- tion’s Classified Network. To learn more, email advertis- ing@lapress.com or call 225- 344-9309. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy in a statement. “They each have the experience, qual- ifications and knowledge of the law to rule fairly and consis- tently. I wish them the best as they begin this new chapter dedicated to serving Louisiana and the country.” Edwards has served as first assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District in Shreveport since 2022. Before that, he served as chief of the civil divi- sion from 2020-2022 after join- ing the office as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2019. Edwards, 44, earned his law degree from Vermont Law School in 2002. Long, 47, graduated from Duke Law School. He has most recently served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New Orleans.◊ Continued from Page 1 pursued cases ended in dismissal, acquittal, or dropped charges. Out of 115 resolved cases as of mid- December, 42 had such outcomes, nearly equaling the number of guilty verdicts. All convictions occurred in Florida, Texas, and Ohio, with Virginia, Georgia, and Arkansas failing to secure any guilty verdicts despite substantial resources allocated. Experts and advocates express- ed alarm over the findings, with Heather Sawyer, executive director of the watchdog group American Oversight, describing the units as a waste of money undermining democracy. Republicans defended the units, emphasizing their role in ensuring election integrity and instilling confidence in voters. Critics argue that the racial and political disparities in the crackdowns, along with the limit- ed number of convictions, ques- tion the necessity and fairness of election integrity initiatives. The analysis has prompted concerns about potential voter suppression efforts under the guise of combat- ing fraud, encouraging calls for reevaluating the allocation of resources in election integrity units. “At best, these ‘election integrity’ units are for show, designed to placate far-right elec- tion denialists in the conservative base,” Sawyer told the researc- hers. “At worst, they are used to justify new voting restrictions and to intimidate people—espe- cially racial minorities—from exercising their right to vote.”◊ Continued from Page 1 a second majority-Black district within its six existing U.S. House seats in order to comply with fed- eral voting rights laws. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ordered the map to be finalized by Jan. 30, effectively forcing a January special session on the Legislature. While running for governor, Landry also repeatedly promised to convene a special session on crime as soon as he possibly could. The governor-elect hasn’t said what the agenda for that special session will include yet, though several conservative criminal justice proposals that Gov. John Bel Edwards shot down over the years will likely surface again. Some of those ideas include lowering the age at which a per- son automatically gets charged as an adult in the criminal justice system from 18 to 17. This adjustment would send more teenagers convicted of crimes to adult prisons instead of juvenile justice facilities. District attorneys already have the ability to charge underage people — including 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds — with adult crimes if they desire. The pro- posed change would limit prose- cutors’ discretion, removing the option of sending 17-year-olds to juvenile justice facilities. Another legislative proposal expected to be revived is one that limits the extent to which bystanders can record police officers confronting or restrain- ing a person in a public space. There has also been an effort to make records of underage teenagers accused of crimes more available to the public. The January and February spe- cial sessions had to be squeezed in between the regular session and Mardi Gras festivities. Washington D.C. Mardi Gras – which hundreds of elected offi- cials from Louisiana attend annu- ally – begins Jan. 24 and lasts through Jan. 27. Fat Tuesday falls on Feb. 14 and is preceded in Louisiana with weeks of parades and other celebrations. Incoming Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple had been pushing for a special session on the property insurance crisis, but Landry wasn’t supportive of that proposal. Instead, lawmakers will have to wait until the regular session to take up insurance bills.◊ Continued from Page 1 he’s taking a new direction, and he or she should be afforded the respect to visit with those folks to make sure that they all align,” Landry said. Gallot’s selection was sup- posed to have been a done deal weeks ago. With little public notice, the UL System board pushed through a vote confirm- ing him as president in late October and gave three board members the authority to work out the details of his contract. “I look forward to meeting with the governor-elect and dis- cussing the future,” Gallot said in an interview Wednesday evening. Gallot has been running Grambling, the only historically Black university in the UL System, since 2016. An attorney and Grambling alumnus, he also served as a Democratic state lawmaker representing north Louisiana from 2000 to 2015. Landry said on Wednesday of last week, that he and Gallot have a “great relationship.” Gallot endorsed Landry when he first ran for attorney general and even appeared in a political advertisement for the governor- elect back in 2015. That doesn’t mean Landry and Gallot would see eye-to-eye on education policy, however. “I don’t want Rick to work for me … and me directing him or expressing to the UL System one way and they don’t believe in it.” Landry said. The decision of who runs the UL System isn’t necessarily Landry’s to make. Louisiana’s higher education system is set up such that gover- nors are not supposed to be directly involved in selecting university system leaders. The UL System president also does- n’t work directly for the gover- nor, in spite of what Landry implied Wednesday. Governors appoint members to higher education boards, including the one overseeing the UL System. Those appointed members, who the Louisiana Senate must con- firm, then hire system presidents. Board member terms are stag- gered, such that governors typi- cally have to win more than one term before they get to pick every member on the boards. Landry, as a new governor, like- ly won’t be able to appoint any new members of the UL board until he has been in office for sev- eral months and may not have con- trol over most of the 16 board seats – one of which is a non-vot- ing student representative – until at least a year from now. The UL System president over- sees policy for its nine schools: the University of New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University, Nicholls State University, McNeese State University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, University of Louisiana-Monroe, Northwestern State University, Grambling and Louisiana Tech. The position opened up sudden- ly this fall when Jim Henderson, in an usual move, decided to step down to take a job as president of Louisiana Tech. Should Gallot get the job run- ning the UL System, it would be a historic event in Louisiana. Three of the state’s four higher education systems would be run by Black men for the first time. LSU President William Tate, Southern University System Dennis Shields and Gallot are all African American.◊ Continued from Page 1 Continued from Page 3 Attorneys: He’s on Louisiana’s death row for a crime that didn’t happen contend the girl had a seizure and drowned. Also, the petition for exonera- tion notes a jailhouse informant has recanted claims that Duncan told him “it must have been the devil” that forced him to assault the young girl. Prosecutors also failed to disclose they showed leniency toward the informant for the information, in violation of the law. Ouachita Parish District Attorney Robert Tew must respond to the petition from Duncan’s team by Dec. 25, a It is very hard to look at the evidence we have put forward and come to any conclusion other than the prosecution’s horrific story about rape and murder was based on falsified, fraudulent and unvalidated ‘scientific evidence.’ – Tamia Brief Attorney Innocence Project ‘ ‘ Edwards confirmed