Judge orders new trial for Alabama man who has been on death row for 31 years

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a new trial for an Alabama death row inmate after tests showed it was another man's DNA on the victim's body.

Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks last week ruled that Christopher Barbour must get a new trial.

Barbour, now 56, was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of Thelma Bishop Roberts in Montgomery. Barbour initially confessed that he killed Roberts after helping another man rape her, but he later recanted and said his confession was coerced by police. He has maintained that he is innocent.

New DNA testing done in 2021 revealed that semen on the victim's body didn't belong to either man. It belonged to Roberts' neighbor who is now incarcerated for an unrelated murder.

His attorneys argued in an earlier court filing that “Mr. Barbour’s innocence is patently clear."

Marks said that Barbour’s conviction was tainted because prosecutors did not turn over bench notes from the initial forensics report that excluded Barbour, as well as the man he said raped the victim, as the source of the DNA. That information, Marks said, could have used to cast doubt on Barbour’s confession, which was the primary evidence against him at trial.

"Barbour has shown that the prosecution’s knowing use of false evidence may have had an effect on the outcome of the trial,” Marks wrote.

The state had argued that the DNA results do not exonerate Barbour. A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state plans to appeal the decision.

The ruling came in a civil case that Barbour filed challenging his conviction on the grounds that his rights were violated. Marks gave the state 90 days to begin preparations for a new trial.

Marks did not rule on Barbour’s innocence claim but wrote that he can now “argue as much to a jury.” Marks wrote in a ruling last year that the new DNA information “is powerful evidence that Barbour’s confession is false, and that Mrs. Roberts’ murder did not occur as the prosecution presented it at trial.”

Barbour has been on Alabama's death row since 1994.