Indiana appeals court orders new trial for Jason Hubbell after 28 years in prison
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a new trial for Jason Hubbell, convicted in 1999 of murder, after finding the state withheld key evidence pointing to another suspect.
Indiana Court of Appeals orders new trial for man jailed 28 years for 1997 murder
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling granting Jason Hubbell a new trial, according to law.nd.edu. Hubbell, a client of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic (EJC), has spent more than 28 years in prison for the 1997 murder of Sharon Myers in Columbus, Indiana.
In a published opinion dated 1 September, the appellate court upheld Bartholomew County Circuit Court Judge Kelly S. Benjamin's earlier ruling that the State of Indiana violated Hubbell's constitutional rights by withholding material exculpatory evidence from his defence. The court found the case against Hubbell at his 1999 trial was "not strong" and that the suppressed evidence undermined confidence in his conviction.
"This is a major victory. Jason has been in prison well over 25 years," said Professor Jimmy Gurulé, faculty director of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic. "The critical evidence that the State withheld was evidence that pointed to the actual killer of Sharon Myers. Had that evidence been presented to the jury at trial, Jason wouldn't have been convicted. What happened to Jason is a tragic miscarriage of justice."
Hubbell was convicted in 1999 of the 1997 abduction and murder of Myers and sentenced to 75 years in prison. The EJC began representing him on a pro bono basis in October 2022.
In September 2025, Judge Benjamin vacated Hubbell's conviction and granted him a new trial, finding that the State had violated his constitutional rights under Brady v. Maryland by suppressing material exculpatory evidence. The State subsequently appealed that decision.
Evidence pointed to another convicted killer
The withheld evidence implicated Michael Dean Overstreet, who was separately convicted of the 1997 abduction, rape, and murder of Kelly Eckart and sentenced to death. The murders of Myers and Eckart shared significant similarities: both women were strangled with ligatures made from their own clothing, and both were killed within two miles of each other in the Atterbury Wildlife Preserve.
Among the undisclosed evidence were statements from Overstreet's then-wife. She told investigators that on the day Myers disappeared, Overstreet left home unusually early in a white cargo van and returned that evening dishevelled and covered in blood. A former co-worker also told investigators that Overstreet claimed he was having an affair with a woman named Sharon in Columbus and had got her pregnant.
During a five-day evidentiary hearing in February 2025, EJC attorneys and students presented evidence concerning Overstreet's involvement in Myers's murder. Hubbell's original trial counsel testified that, had the undisclosed evidence been available before trial, he would have investigated Overstreet and presented him to the jury as an alternate suspect.
Physical evidence did not match Hubbell
The Court of Appeals also noted that eyewitnesses described a blond man with Myers shortly before her disappearance, while Hubbell has brown hair. The evidence implicating Overstreet was consistent with a white cargo van seen by eyewitnesses, and pubic hairs found near Myers's body did not match Hubbell.
"As a result of the State's suppression of the exculpatory evidence, we must conclude that our confidence in Hubbell's conviction has been undermined," the appellate court wrote in its opinion.
Judge Paul Mathias authored the majority opinion, with Judge Mary DeBoer concurring. Judge Dana Kenworthy concurred in the result in a separate opinion, agreeing that the State failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, that the evidence was material, and that Hubbell was entitled to a new trial.
Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic led the case
EJC staff attorney and term teaching professor Kevin Murphy led the investigation and litigation, with assistance from EJC legal assistant Anne Peterson, staff attorney Lenora Popken, adjunct professor Elliot Slosar, and EJC investigator Christian Sheckler. Several Notre Dame law students also contributed to preparing the appeal briefs.
Sarah P. Hogarth and other attorneys at McDermott Will & Schulte provided additional assistance with the appeal. The Court of Appeals opinion lists Gurulé, Murphy, Popken, and Hogarth as attorneys of record for Hubbell.
The EJC was founded with a commitment to criminal justice reform, litigating wrongful conviction cases and educating the public about miscarriages of justice.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)