Paris, TX may be scene of next DNA exoneration

Texas may see yet another post-conviction DNA exoneration today out of Paris, TX, after DNA on an alleged murder weapon turned out not to belong to the victim or the defendant. A judge this morning will determine whether this means the defendant gets a new trial now that the main evidence against him has been debunked. Reports the Paris News:

Danny Holloway, who has served more than eight years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice System for the stabbing death of a young Paris woman, has been returned to Lamar County Jail for an evidentiary hearing to determine if he should get a new trial in the case.

The case will be heard in Judge Eric Clifford’s 6th District Court at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Holloway was convicted in the 2001 stabbing death, but DNA tests determined the knife allegedly used in the stabbing could not have been used to kill her.

The tests, ordered by Clifford last year and performed by Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas, show the knife used to convict Danny Holloway was likely not the weapon that killed Ashley Lee during a fight outside a north Paris night club in July 2001.

At the time of the death, forensic DNA testing was either not available or available but not technologically capable of providing probative results. ...

There were no latent fingerprints on the knife, and Holloway was never connected to the knife by evidence.

Holloway’s Arlington attorney, John Stickles, said he asked for the hearing “to determine if Holloway should get another trial.

I'll update the story later today when we find out how Judge Clifford rules.

UPDATE: Via AP, "Texan to receive new trial after DNA test on knife."