DNA and fingerprint results released last week are casting doubt on the guilt of Ledell Lee, an Arkansas man that was executed four years ago for the murder of his neighbor, Debra Reese.
On April 20, 2017—after 24 years in prison—Lee, a Black man, was executed for the 1993 murder of Reese, despite the fact that there was no physical evidence directly connecting Lee to the crime scene or murder.
In January 2020, Lee’s family, working with the Innocence Project and ACLU, were successful in their bid to have the DNA and fingerprint evidence in Lee’s case analyzed. Neither had been tested previously when collected from the 1993 crime scene. The results of the analysis, conducted by Forensic Analytical Crime Lab (FACL), were released on Friday.
According to the report, DNA from an unknown male—who is not Lee—was found on the handle of the supposed murder weapon: a bloody wooden billy club recovered from the victim’s bedroom. The same DNA was also found in a DNA mixture on a bloody white shirt wrapped around the murder weapon.
The unknown male DNA was entered into CODIS, but no hits to known individuals were obtained.
“While this phase of the litigation and court-ordered DNA testing is now concluded, the investigation into the case remains open due to the possibility of a future database ‘hit’ to the unknown male DNA or unknown fingerprints from the crime scene. We are hopeful that one or more of these forensic law enforcement databases will generate additional information in the future,” said Nina Morrison, Senior Litigation Counsel at the Innocence Project in a statement.
During Lee’s trial, the state argued that hairs recovered from the crime scene were “microscopically consistent” with Lee. However, this forensic method was discredited in later years. Per the 2020 order, the hairs were submitted to the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) for mitochondrial DNA testing. DNA profiles suitable for interpretation or exclusion were obtained from 6 of the hairs—and Lee was excluded as the source for 5 of them. He could not be excluded as a potential source for the other.
Just like the DNA profile, if a suspect is found in the future, the hairs can be compared with the known individual to verify a match.
Additionally, in 1993, it was determined that none of the five interpretable fingerprints recovered from the crime scene belonged to Lee. However, they were never entered into AFIS. The new evidence review searched the latent prints against AFIS/NGI but no hits were obtained. While they remain unidentified, that also means all crime scene fingerprints exclude Lee—again.
The Innocence Project, ACLU and lawyers from Hogan Lovells and Quattlebaum and Grooms & Tull say they have asked the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory to conduct an additional search in the Arkansas State fingerprint database, as the state’s AFIS system is believed to contain latent prints from additional individuals and/or crime scenes that are not included in the national versions. However, this analysis has not been conducted.
"Ledell Lee was convicted by an Arkansas jury," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a statement to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. "Prior to his execution, he exhausted his right of appeal up to the Arkansas Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. The DNA findings released [last week] do not present any conclusive evidence to undermine the findings of those high courts.”
Lee's first trial in Reese's slaying ended with a hung jury. In this trial, numerous alibi witnesses gave testimony that showed Lee could not have been at the scene of the crime. However, in the second trial, the defense did not call any alibi witnesses, and Lee was later convicted and sentenced to death. Additionally, in 2019, Lee’s post-conviction lawyer said he was struggling with substance abuse at the time, was overworked, was intoxicated during several of Lee’s hearings, and struggled to present a defense and evidence of Lee’s innocence.
The Innocence Project and ACLU first got involved in Lee’s case only two weeks before his execution date, which was scheduled by Hutchinson. Although the lawyers found compelling evidence quickly, the court refused to hear any new evidence or allow DNA testing before executing Lee, arguing that the request came too late.
Lee was one of seven death row inmates scheduled for execution in an 11-day period—which was and still is unprecedented—because Arkansas’ supply of lethal injection drugs was about to expire. Four of the inmates received stays of execution, but Lee was not one of them.
Photo: Ledell Lee. Credit: The Young family