Jimmie "Chris" Duncan spent 27 years on Louisiana's death row for a crime he did not commit. He was convicted based on bite mark evidence that two forensic experts appear to have fabricated, according to reporting by ProPublica and Verite News. This June, Louisiana's Supreme Court overturned that conviction entirely, with Chief Justice John Weimer comparing the state's discredited forensic case to a witch trial and calling similar evidence against Duncan "similarly specious."

Being free on bail is not the same as being free. Ouachita Parish District Attorney Steve Tew has said in court that he still believes Duncan is guilty and deserves execution, and he could still pursue a new trial and a new death sentence. He has months left to make that call, even as his own time as district attorney winds down. Until Tew drops the case for good, Duncan cannot access Louisiana's wrongful conviction compensation fund, a fund Attorney General Liz Murrill has fought to gut for exonerees like him.

Duncan spent nearly twenty years locked in a cell 23 hours a day, in heat that reached above 115 degrees, while the state built a death sentence on evidence that has since fallen apart. He is now free, but not finished proving it: he works the night shift at a Walmart for $17 an hour while a retrial still hangs over him.

"I'm 100% factually innocent, but not 100% free from prosecution," Duncan said, according to ProPublica and Verite News.

Steve Tew should drop any retrial of Jimmie Duncan now, and Liz Murrill should stop standing between exonerated Louisianans and the compensation they are owed. Sign the petition demanding Louisiana let Jimmie Duncan go, before one more year of his life is spent fighting a case the state's own Supreme Court already rejected.