THREAD: Eddie Lee Howard, a Black man, is free after spending 26 years on death row at Parchman for a rape/murder DNA now proves he didn't commit.

The primary evidence against him?

INVISIBLE bite marks an alleged expert found using "special glasses." 1/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
"Bite mark expert" Dr. Michael West's 1994 testimony ensured Eddie Lee Howard's death sentence.

Later, West testified that bite marks on a 3-year-old's body were those of Kennedy Brewer—her father.

The real culprit? Crawfish, a forensic panel found. 2/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Thanks to Dr. Michael West's testimony, Kennedy Brewer, who is Black, spent seven years on death row for the murder of his three-year-old child before advanced DNA testing excluded him from the crime.

As @11_mcgee's reports, he wasn't alone. 3/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
In Mississippi alone, Dr. Michael West's expert "evidence" has led to wrongful charges, convictions & death row sentences for at least 7 people for a combined 75+ years in prison, including Eddie Lee Howard & Kennedy Brewer, @Innocence says. 4/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
But even decades after Dr. Michael West was widely discredited, Eddie Lee Howard remained on death row.

Then, in 2020, Lowndes County's first Black district attorney, @ScottColom, dropped the charges after the MS Supreme Court ordered a new trial. 5/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
But it wasn't just Dr. West's "junk science" testimony that troubled DA Colom: New DNA testing was done on the knife blade in the victim's home.

“But it didn’t match Howard, and in fact Howard was excluded as a source of the DNA,” he told @11_mcgee. 6/mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
In his first trial, DA Colom says now that prosecutors did not enter pictures or even diagrams of the bite marks that they relied on to convict Eddie Lee Howard.

“There is no documentation of (the bite marks) anywhere,” he said. 7/mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Scott Colom, who became district attorney in 2015, has committed to not using bite-mark evidence in current & future cases.

“Dr. West and the bite-mark evidence that was used is not reliable and has a lot of problems,” Colom said. 8/mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Eddie Lee Howard was 38 at the time of his arrest. He is now free at 67.

For over a quarter century, he spent 22 hours each day in a solitary cell in Parchman.

His only meaningful social interactions for 26 years was with two inmates in nearby cells. 9/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
"Since Howard’s incarceration in 1992, Parchman has violated the Safe Water Drinking Act over a hundred times for excess amounts of dangerous bacteria such as coliform and for routinely having radiologicals in the water such as Uranium and Radium-226." 10/ mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Parchman began as a 90% Black prison farm that replicated Old South slave cotton plantations. It's often called "the worst prison in the United States."

Since Howard’s incarceration in 1992, Parchman has violated the Safe Water Drinking Act 100+ times. 11/mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Rep. Karriem: “When I led a delegation to (Parchman) early last year, the suffocating stench of feces hung in the air. Blood was still visible on the floor from the recent rash of violence. Water was ankle-deep with live wires floating like electric eels." mississippifreepress.org/8163/legislato…
Give @11_mcgee a follow & read his excellent report on Eddie Lee Howard's story. He's celebrating freedom in the photo, but remember: he lost 26 years.

You can also follow the @Innocence project for more on their work in freeing innocent people.
mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
If you support people-centered reporting that holds the powerful to account in Mississippi, please follow @MSFreePress and consider giving a one-time or recurring donation to mfp.ms/donate.
Note: In September 2016, President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concluded that forensic bite-mark evidence is “not scientifically valid.”
mississippifreepress.org/9488/eddie-lee…
Multiple innocent Black men went to prison because of Dr. Michael West's testimony.

In The Innocence Files, Dr. Michael West praised the Forrest Cty Confederate monument (which Hattiesburg residents want removed) & compared himself to it:

"They wanted to erase me from history."
Tune in for an episode of MFP Live on Thursday featuring DA Scott Colom, who dropped the charges against Eddie Lee Howard, along with @MSFreePress editor @DonnerKay and @11_mcgee, who reported this story.

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More from @ashtonpittman

24 Feb
NEW: As Mississippi passed a bill ending the state income tax today. Rep. Trey Lamar compared it to ending slavery.

“President Lincoln said the right to have a reward for your work was the birthright of every American. That was the main issue of the war.” mississippifreepress.org/9573/as-state-…
The "Mississippi Tax Freedom Act of 2021" would phase out the income tax over a 10-year period starting in 2022.

To make up for the loss about about one-third of the state's revenue, the bill raise the general sales tax from 7% to 9.5%. #MSLeg
mississippifreepress.org/9573/as-state-…
This morning, Democratic House Leader Robert Johnson said he hadn't found a "trick" or "trojan horse" in the bill, citing provisions he likes.

It cuts the grocery tax in half, from 7% to 3.5%.

But he voted against the bill this afternoon. mississippifreepress.org/9573/as-state-…
Read 13 tweets
21 Feb
The right wing has a very deliberate strategy behind its endless cries of victimhood, suppression & liberal bias: to bully powerful institutions into granting it special privileges & establishing double standards for their benefit.

In sports, it's called "working the refs." 1/
One of the most successful targets of this long-time campaign to "work the refs" was James Comey.

@Comey began the Clinton email investigation for fear the FBI would look political if he didn't.

He publicly criticized Clinton even as he exonerated her due to the same fear. 2/
Comey didn't go public about the investigation into evidence that the Trump campaign was coordinating with Russia for fear of right-wing accusations of bias if he did.

Comey went public about finding "new" Clinton emails 10 days before the election for the same fear. 3/
Read 23 tweets
19 Feb
NEW: After Marc Davis, a Black man, called 911 to report he'd been in a car crash, a responding police officer shot Davis three times, killing him.

Petal's Chamber of Commerce just declared that officer, Aaron Jernigan, Petal's "2020 Officer of the Year." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx is a director with the Petal Chamber of Commerce that gave Officer Jernigan the award.

Last year, Marx drew hundreds of #BlackLivesMatter protesters after mocking George Floyd's death: “If you say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing." mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Petal Mayor Hal Marx's remarks about George Floyd and the claim that George Floyd died of an overdose drew renewed attention to Marc Davis' death.

State investigators and a federal judge ruled the shooting "justified," but Davis' family challenged that. mississippifreepress.org/9455/petal-off…
Read 14 tweets
19 Feb
NEW: Moss Point Mayor Mario King & his wife Natasha told contributors for the 2019 "Mayor's Gala" that proceeds would support a mental health program for K-12 students.

Prosecutors say they used the money to buy a Volvo & pay off personal debt instead. 1/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings plan to plead guilty to at least one charge each on Feb. 24. But Mayor King has signaled no plans to resign despite facing 14 federal charges and up to 20 years. His term ends in June.

An alderman is calling for him to "immediately" resign. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
The Kings told gala attendees that their contributions would “support the efforts of mental health in the City of Moss Point with a focus on the Moss Point School District, converting spaces into a therapeutic and innovative learning environment." 3/ mississippifreepress.org/9439/moss-poin…
Read 10 tweets
18 Feb
Later, we'll probably hear some contrived excuse like, "He was just accompanying his family to see them off safely and always intended to return."

But the long silence and failure to communicate that sooner will refute that.
Well, call me Miss Cleo and lay down a Benjamin. (h/t: @CCarter520) Image
A statement from the senator:
"With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, so flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

His return flight was originally for Saturday; it changed this morning. Image
Read 5 tweets
16 Feb
NEW: U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker voted for more than $3.6 trillion in stimulus spending under Trump last year.

But he says he'll vote 'No' on Biden's stimulus because it “would add to the mountain of debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay.” mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
In 2009, Sen. Roger Wicker cited concerns about the debt as he voted against Obama's stimulus $830billion stimulus, calling it "the most expensive piece of legislation in the history of our republic.”

Under Trump, he voted for the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Since he joined the U.S. Senate, @SenatorWicker has twice voted against stimulus bills when under Democratic presidents, calling them "Spending Bills," and twice voted for stimulus bills under a Republican president—Trump—calling them "relief packages." mississippifreepress.org/9294/sen-wicke…
Read 9 tweets

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