Black man who spent years on death row freed after evidence discredited in murder case
January 13, 2021 / 1:06 PM / CBS/AP
A Black man who spent more than a quarter-century on death row in the 1992 killing of a White woman has been released from a Mississippi prison after a judge dismissed the murder charge against him. Eddie Lee Howard, now 67, was convicted multiple times of capital murder in the stabbing death of 84-year-old Georgia Kemp of Lowndes County, but key evidence used to convict him was later discredited.
In Mississippi, capital murder is defined as a killing committed along with another felony. In this case, the other felony was rape.
Black man wrongfully on death row for killing white woman freed after 26 years
The Mississippi Supreme Court vacated Eddie Lee Howard s conviction and death sentence last August
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Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a woman and sentenced to death in 1994. Now, after serving decades behind bars, he is free after scientific evidence was deemed non-conclusive.
Howard was named the suspect and found guilty for the rape and murder of 84-year-old
Georgia Kemp. He was linked to the crime by a doctor who claimed that bite marks found on the victim were a match to Howard’s teeth. The case was based almost entirely on this evidence.
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A Black man who wrongfully served 26 years on death row in the killing of a White woman is now free
January 13, 2021 9:53 AM CNN
From Mississippi Innocence Project
Eddie Lee Howard was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1994. Now, after decades of fighting, he has been exonerated.
Howard, who is Black, was sentenced to death in 1994, after being wrongfully convicted for the murder and rape of 84-year-old Georgia Kemp, who is White, in Columbus, Mississippi, according to the Innocence Project, which represented Howard.
Howard was initially tied to the crime by a doctor who compared bite marks on Kemp’s body to Howard’s teeth. But in August, the Mississippi Supreme Court recognized that bite-mark comparisons were not enough to tie him to the murder, and stated that “an individual perpetrator cannot be reliably identified through bite-mark comparison.”
Discredited Bite Mark Evidence, DNA Tests Help Exonerate Eddie Lee Howard After 26 Years on Death Row forensicmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forensicmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A black man who spent 26 years on death row for murder was exonerated on Friday after new DNA testing revealed he was not the perpetrator.
“I want to say many thanks to the many people who are responsible for helping to make my dream of freedom a reality,” said Eddie Lee Howard, who was convicted in 1994 of murdering an elderly white woman in Columbus, Mississippi, according to the Innocence Project. “I thank you with all my heart, because without your hard work on my behalf, I would still be confined in that terrible place called the Mississippi Department of Corrections, on death row, waiting to be executed.”