New DNA Evidence Questions Death Row Conviction

0:00Christopher Barber has sat on Alabama's death row for over 30 years after a 1993 conviction for Capitol murder. He was accused of stabbing a Montgomery single mom to death during a rape back in 1992. But recent DNA tests on evidence from her body matched her teenage neighbor, Jerry Tyrone Jackson, not Barber or anyone he named. Barber confessed to cops, pointing to a homeless buddy named Christopher Hester as the rapist, but he later took it back. He also got 24 years on a lesser charge in his out now. The state says Barber just got the name wrong out of fear or confusion, and the DNA doesn't touch his role in the stabbing. Jackson was the victim's son's close friend and lived across the street. He's serving life for murdering another woman in 2001 after she turned down his advances. No physical evidence linked Barber to the scene, and his lawyers fought 20 years just to get the DNA tested. Last August, federal judge Emily Marks ruled the new evidence shreds the old case and ordered

1:01a new trial, calling the state's spin unscientific. Prosecutors fire back, claiming their case is even stronger now, and the men might have teamed up despite both denying they ever met. Alabama's Attorney General appealed to the 11th Circuit, doubling down to block that new trial. Barber stays on death row at home in prison as the appeals drag on, leaving everyone wondering if truth will finally cut through the confusion. That wraps Birmingham News Today, brought to you with AI.