Justice For James Koon

James Koon was convicted in 1996 by a 10/2 jury for allegedly killing an infant that was left alone with him while the mother ran an errand. He was charged with second-degree murder and was given a life sentence for the alleged act. Koon was sent to Angola State Penitentiary, where he contested the dismissal of his August 2013 petition, in which he challenged his 1996 conviction and life sentence. Koon based his petition on evidence allegedly not discoverable prior to 2011. The evidence shows the witness for the state of Louisiana, Dr. Steven Hayne, now-discredited Mississippi coroner, lied about his qualifications as an expert and gave unreliable testimony about the cause of death. A court ruling concluded that the petition was untimely because the "factual predicate" of Koon's claims were known to him or could have been discovered through "due diligence" more than a year before filing a state petition in July 2012. The court ruled in essence that Koon's counsel and Koon himself knew of Hayne's unreliability/untruthfulness as early as June 2010. The court said that the news media severely criticized Hayne between 2006 and 2008. Though Hayne filed legal action against his critics, a Mississippi judge criticized Hayne as unqualified in 2007. There was no question that Hayne was unreliable as a prosecution witness, but the blame was still placed on Koon and his legal team for being untimely in their appeal. In its final ruling, the court said that Koon "discovered or should have discovered the factual predicate of his claim about Hayne more than a year before he filed his state petition. It said that even though Koon found out about Hayne from other sources, the court still asserted that was "implausible and immaterial" because public information about Hayne was available for several years prior to July 2011. Despite some setbacks, Koon is still fighting for his freedom. He has a fiancé who is waiting for the day when he becomes a free man. She noted that Koon did not flee when authorities were notified of the infant's death. She says that she understands how the mother felt about losing her child because she has also lost a child, which is a traumatic experience for a mother. Koon didn't act like someone who willingly committed murder and tried to cover up his tracks. The fact that a court ruling placed the blame of Koon's conviction on himself and his counsel points to how some can afford the best defense while others fall through the cracks. What is even more troubling is that when the case went through the appeal process, a judge did not rule that in Koon's original trial, the prosecutors(state) would themselves use a witness, someone that they knew or should have known, was tainted. The fact was evident that Hayne was not a credible, reliable witness for the state, but his testimony was taken as fact, and not a judge appeared to take that into consideration. Why not penalize the state? It just happened in Bill Cosby's trial appeal. The testimony from Hayne that convicted Koon could have also been the testimony to free him. The outcome might have been different if Koon's resources could equal that of the state. His fiancé hasn't given up hope. Other people have been set free after spending decades behind bars, and she hopes that Koon's days are few.