Remember Leigh Stubbs and the “lesbian bite mark case”– that case where Michael West testified as an expert on both video enhancement and bite marks (he testified he could tell those bite marks were the bite marks of lesbians. Seriously).
Radley Balko reports that the Mississippi Innocence Project is on the verge of obtaining the release of Leigh Stubbs and Tami Vance in those cases.
I just heard from the Mississippi Innocence Project that Leigh Stubbs and Tami Vance will soon be released from prison. This is fantastic news. They’ll be transferred to a local jail and will be able to post bond as soon as the judge signs an order vacating their convictions. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will then decide if he wants to try them again.
Stubbs was convicted based on particularly absurd testimony from Michael West. West’s testimony was particularly absurd in this case. He not only gave his “expert” opinion with respect to his usual bite mark quackery, but also in videography (enhance!), and some bizarre theory about the crime patterns of lesbians. (A male dentist in Hattiesburg, Mississippi would naturally be who’d I’d turn to for expertise on lesbian domestic violence.)
My Huffington Post article on the case here. Check here to watch the video of West actually using a dental mold of Stubbs’ teeth to create the bite mark that he’d later testify came from Stubbs on the night of the alleged crime.
Kudos to the Mississippi Innocence Project for their great work on this case. I’ll have more later.
I have been told that West has retracted his claims of bite mark expertise, so lets hope this is the end of this one and Leigh and Tami can try to get their lives back.
Reminds me: now that Dr. Hayne has been defenestrated, how will the State handle retrials of appellate court-reversed convictions in which Hayne’s ME testimony laid the basis for the cause, manner, and characterization of deaths? One is coming up here in July … just wondering how the DA might proceed.
Big congratulations to the Mississippi Innocence Project!
Question: Is Balko correct – or has he just misstated the process – that AG Hood will decide whether to retry these cases? Why would that not be the province of the local DA? I realize that AG has taken over the duties of local DAs previously, but is there any reason for this to be Hood’s call?
I’m not sure about it, but believe that, for these cases, they’ve been taken over by Hood’s office and they will make the call.
It will be the local DA’s office to make the call unless this is one of the rare trials that Hood’s staff tried. They really don’t try many meaningful cases, usually just chasing impoverished women raising several children on food stamps [SNAP] and working a job on the sly.
West had a “religious” realization that the death penalty is wrong and quit testifying. I don’t think his ego would allow him to admit that his opinions were the equivalent of week old cow crap. When faced with the FACT that DNA evidence proved he was wrong in a case on the gulf coast [1990's], his response was that DNA was not an exact science!!!
NMC, our posts were in progress at the same time. I’m referenced to general procedure where cases that are reversed are sent back to the DAs that tried the case. This case may well be differently assigned consistent with your post.
How could these people have been in jail for 10 minutes? And Jim Hood ought to be supporting the Mississippi Innocence Project, not bad mouthing it as he has in the past. This case is really a disgrace. In fact, the whole Hayne-West string of cases are a blight on the state.
Terminator, I could be wrong, but had the understanding that the Asst AG was going to make the decision on this one. I’ll ask.
I’m told that West and Hayne have both retracted their prior opinions that bite mark evidence is reliable.
That that allows people to remain in Parchman convicted on that retracted testimony is a sad thought, but there you have it.
I think some praise of the Circuit Judge granting this, is in order. Certainly, not many would have have done it.
An aside:
MDOC has Tami recored as Tammy Vance
[...] Are double exonerations on the way from the Mississippi Innocence Project in the bite mark case of Leigh Stubbs and Tami Vance? [...]
Here’s a new article on it:
http://www.dailyleader.com/news/article_39b7af80-c20c-11e1-81a4-001a4bcf887a.html