In 2017, Ledell Lee was executed for the 1993 death of Debra Reese, but his supporters claim recent DNA test results might be the key to Lee’s exoneration.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Innocence Project requested the testing in January and publicly addressed the findings on Friday, according to KATV. The organizations claimed DNA from an unknown male was found on the club used to bludgeon Reese to death and a t-shirt wrapped around it.
The genetic material did not match any samples stored in a national database. Additionally, the organizations claimed Lee’s genetic material wasn’t found on either item. However, testing of other evidence at the scene did not rule him out.
Nina Morrison, Senior Litigation Counsel at the Innocence Project, noted flaws in the results, but she believes they cast enough doubt to prompt reexamination.
“While the results obtained twenty-nine years after the evidence was collected proved to be incomplete and partial, it is notable that there are now new DNA profiles that were not available during the trial or post-conviction proceedings in Mr. Lee’s case,” Morrison said in a statement to KATV.
“We are glad there is new evidence in the national DNA database and remain hopeful that there will be further information uncovered in the future,” Patricia Young, Lee’s sister, said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson dismissed the results as “inconclusive” and didn’t regret the state’s decision.
“Whenever you make tough decisions, whenever you have to carry out the decision of a jury, you realize that it’s been reviewed by the Supreme Court at every level,” said Hutchinson. “They affirm the convictions, and it’s my duty to carry out the law.”
Lee was executed by lethal injection in 2017 and proclaimed his innocence until the day he died. He was one of four inmates who were executed so the state could use the injections before they expired. No one has been executed since then.
