Man Who Sat on Death Row Is Cleared After Bite-Mark Evidence Is Doubted Eddie Lee Howard of Mississippi spent more than two decades in prison, but the evidence used to convict him in a 1992 killing is no longer considered reliable. Eddie Lee Howard is free after spending more than a quarter of a century behind bars, much of it on Mississippi’s death row.Credit...The Mississippi Innocence Project Jan. 14, 2021 After years of fighting a murder conviction that had relied heavily on dubious evidence, a Mississippi man who spent more than quarter of a century behind bars won dismissal of his case last week.