In 1995, an Arkansas jury convicted and sentenced a Black man to death for the murder of his white neighbor.
Ledell Lee, who maintained his innocence, was executed in 2017.
Now four years after his death, a new test requested by the ACLU and The Innocence Project proves Lee’s DNA was not on the evidence, a wooden club or a bloody shirt found at the crime scene.
The test results found DNA of an “unknown male” and fingerprints that did not match Lee’s.
During the trial, prosecutors relied on eyewitness testimony from Reese’s neighbors, who said they saw Lee walking around the neighborhood the morning of her murder.
Lee and his attorneys filed multiple appeals and requested to have DNA analysis conducted on blood and hair recovered from the scene but were unsuccessful.
The state denied the ACLU and Innocence Project’s request for a DNA test days before Lee’s execution.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released the following statement about the DNA results.
“The courts consistently rejected Ledell Lee’s frivolous claims because the evidence demonstrated beyond any shadow of a doubt that he murdered Debra Reese by beating her to death inside her home with a tire thumper. After 20 years, I am prayerful that Debra’s family has had closure following his lawful execution in 2017.”
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