On November 26, 2025, Jimmy “Chris” Duncan was released on bail after spending 27 years on death row at Angola prison in Louisiana. In 1998, Duncan was sentenced to death for the 1993 death of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux. In May 2025, Judge Alvin Sharp ruled Duncan to be innocent. New evidence and scientific understanding found that the true cause of death was not homicide, but an accidental drowning. Oliveaux also had previous head injuries and a history of seizures, which could have contributed to her death. Even Oliveaux’s mother, Allison Stathman, testified in 2025 that she believed Duncan to be innocent.
What led to Duncan’s wrongful conviction? The foundation of his case was the forensic evidence provided by dentist Michael West and pathologist Steven Hayne, two discredited forensic analysts who are responsible for at least nine other wrongful convictions. Not only were Hayne and West unqualified, but they were also intentionally fraudulent. They claimed that Haley had been bitten and sexually assaulted at the time of her death, matching the bite marks to those of Duncan. A videotape later came out of West pressing molds of Duncan's teeth into Oliveaux’s body, fabricating false evidence.
Two forensic pathologists later stated that Hayne’s autopsy was careless, superficial, and scientifically unsupported. New evidence revealed that Hayne was performing five times the maximum number of autopsies allowed by the National Association of Medical Examiners at the time of Haley’s death. Chris Fabricant, Duncan's Innocence Project attorney, stated, “Mr. Duncan was wrongly convicted based on the fraudulent forensics of Drs. Steven Hayne and Michael West, woefully ineffective defense counsel, and the State’s patent misconduct. Mr. Duncan’s incarceration was a gross miscarriage of justice — his execution would have been a moral outrage.”
In addition to the dishonest science, there were also unjust incentives at play. When Duncan was charged, a man who was incarcerated with Duncan claimed that he had confessed to the crime. Duncan’s team, who represented him without charging a fee, found later that the man received leniency from the State for his own charges in return for his testimony, leading to the conclusion that he fabricated a lie in hopes of helping his own case.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, one in four people exonerated since 1989 were wrongfully convicted due to false or misleading forensic evidence. At least 39 wrongful convictions used the technique of bite mark matching, which has since been exposed as junk science. While Duncan’s release is an important step toward justice, it cannot erase the decades he lost or the trauma he endured. According to the Georgia Innocence Project, studies show that at least 4–6% of people incarcerated in the United States are innocent.
As high school students, it is easy to feel powerless against the deeply rooted corruption in our criminal legal system. However, we all have the ability to make an impact. We can support organizations such as The Innocence Project or the Exoneration Project through donating or volunteering, petition for political reform, and educate ourselves and our communities about these issues.