The Oregon Department of Justice has agreed to throw out a murder conviction in a 1991 strangulation case in Eugene based on flawed evidence.
Robert W. Lyons was convicted in the killing of Lori Marlene Stabenow, 24, at a motel based on faulty bite mark evidence, according to Janis C. Puracal, executive director of the Forensic Justice Project, a nonprofit that helps defense lawyers understand and challenge misleading or faulty forensic evidence.
A forensic odontologist determined that the killer had made the marks on Stabenow’s body and that the marks matched Lyons’ teeth.
The case against Lyons is the first to be thrown out under a new Oregon law passed earlier this year that allows those convicted based on bite mark analysis or other flawed scientific evidence to return to court to challenge their conviction.
“Mr. Lyons has been fighting for 35 years to prove his innocence,” Puracal said in a statement.
Because the state law is so new, Puracal’s firm is still working to figure out how many convictions in Oregon may have rested on similar discredited forensic science, including bite mark analysis, hair comparison and bullet lead analysis, she said.
Lyons had met Stabenow the night before she was killed. There were no witnesses to the crime or other evidence that supported his conviction, according to Puracal.
Bite mark analysis and comparison has been severely criticized over the years since Lyons’ conviction, with scientific organizations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology reporting that the process is unreliable and lacks scientific foundation, Puracal said.
Marion County Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hart last week agreed to vacate Lyons’ convictions on charges of aggravated murder, murder and first-degree burglary.
Both Lyons’ lawyers and the Oregon Department of Justice made the request, according to court records.
They agreed that Lyons likely wouldn’t have been convicted “had the scientific expert testimony, scientific expert evidence, or scientific expert opinion applying bite mark analysis and bite mark comparison not been admitted” at trial, according to the order filed in court.
Lyons’ convictions are among dozens of cases nationwide that have been overturned or dismissed as bite mark analysis comes under greater scrutiny and has been discredited.
Lyons, now 61, remains in custody at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
It’s now up to the Lane County District Attorney’s Office to decide whether to retry the case. That’s unlikely unless new evidence arises linking Lyons to the crime.
DA officials didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
