NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to retry or free a death-row inmate whom, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded, no juror would have found guilty based on evidence that emerged years after his trial.
Paul House, sentenced to die for the 1985 slaying of a young mother, has been in legal limbo while a prosecutor battled efforts to have him retried.
Now the state will have to do just that, following a ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr.
House, who has multiple sclerosis and must use a wheelchair, went to prison in February 1986 for killing Carolyn Muncey, whose badly beaten body was found near her home. House insists he is innocent.
Semen collected from Muncey’s nightgown and underwear belonged to her husband, undercutting the premise that House murdered her during a sexual assault. The Associated Press
