In Louisiana, a district judge set aside the conviction and death sentence of a man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter in 1998 because his conviction was based on bite mark evidence, which has been debunked as junk science, ProPublica reports. The judge’s decision stems from a March investigation conducted by Verite News and ProPublica questioning the validity of Duncan’s conviction. According to ProPublica, the debunked evidence resulted from an analysis done by forensic dentist Michael West and pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne, whose techniques have been legally scrutinized “after questions emerged about [their] validity,” ProPublica reported. It’s not clear “when” or “if” Duncan will walk free, the publication noted, because the district attorney can appeal the decision, retry Duncan, or set him free.
In New York, Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street last December, pleaded not guilty to the shooting in a federal courtroom last week, The Hill reports. The 26-year-old Mangione is facing the death penalty in the case at the urging of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said the killing was “an act of political violence,” according to The Hill.
Also in New York, a federal judge denied another motion to remove the death penalty in the federal case of Payton Gendron, who pled guilty to killing 10 Black people in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo in 2022, Spectrum News One reports. Gendron’s lawyers argued that the federal government’s grand jury questions covered a “wide range of topics” unrelated to the charges the grand jury is considering, according to Spectrum News One. Gendron pleaded guilty to state charges in the mass shooting and is serving a life without parole sentence.
In Idaho, the death penalty remains on the table for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students in 2022, the Idaho Statesman reports. Kohberger’s lawyer argued last month that his recent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder “exposes him to the unacceptable risk” that he’ll be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, according to the paper. But Judge Steven Hippler ruled that “ASD may be a mitigating factor to be weighed against the aggravating factors in determining if a defendant should receive the death penalty, but it is not a death-penalty disqualifier.
