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Expert weighs in after rare back-to-back murder acquittals in Baton Rouge court
BATON ROUGE - The 19th Judicial District Courthouse has maintained a conviction rate of more than 90% for fifty years, so experts say the recent back-to-back acquittals of two men tried for murder after being prosecuted within the same month is highly unusual.
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First, Kevin Dukes was acquitted in the murder of Julius Thomas on Aug. 2, and then 18 days later, Jarvis Lee Bowie was acquitted in the murder of Clarence Augustus.
LSU Law Professor Ken Levy says acquittals in these cases are as rare as they come.
"If this is a fluke or trend where defendants in two cases were acquitted, I think it's much more common for prosecutors to win their cases. To get two back-to-back acquittals strikes me as rare, but again, I don't know. It could have been a coincidence," Levy said.
Bowie's defense attorney, Alex Laird, says both Dukes' and his client's case had one thing in common: a tracking app called TraX.
"It's a very imprecise way of trying to pinpoint someone's location. It would try to say they're in a five-mile radius circle somewhere on a map. I think that it needs to be looked at, I don't think the state should be relying on TraX software," Levy said.
Professor Levy said if the app was being used in both cases as evidence, it could be a common denominator.
"If juries aren't buying that an app is reliable and that are acquitting on that basis, there's your answer. I think that the lesson for the district attorney is to stop relying on that app for evidence because the jury isn't buying it," Levy said.
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