Bio

Eddie Lee Howard Jr. was born on June 27, 1953. Mississippi Department of Corrections records listed him as Eddie Lee Howard, offender number 30856, with a birthdate of June 27, 1953. Howard was a lifelong resident of Columbus, Mississippi. At the time of the investigation into Georgia Kemp’s death, he lived only a few blocks from her home.

Before the 1992 case, Howard had prior convictions for sexual offenses. The Mississippi Supreme Court later noted that he had been sentenced in 1972 for assault with intent to ravish and in 1977 for assault with intent to rape and ravish. Those prior convictions became part of the prosecution’s case and sentencing arguments, but they did not prove his involvement in Georgia Kemp’s murder.

Howard became a suspect after Kemp’s body was found and after investigators focused on alleged bite-mark evidence. Police took him to a dentist’s office on February 6, 1992, where impressions were made of his teeth. Dr. Michael West later claimed that marks on Kemp’s body matched Howard’s teeth. That evidence became the central evidence used against him in both trials.

Murder Story

On the evening of February 2, 1992, a neighbor saw smoke coming from the Columbus, Mississippi, home of Georgia Kemp. Firefighters entered the home and found a small smoldering fire in the living room. They then found Kemp’s body on the bedroom floor. A bloody knife was found on the bed, and the telephone line had been cut.

Dr. Steven Hayne performed the autopsy on February 3, 1992. He concluded that Kemp had been beaten, strangled, stabbed, and raped. The cause of death was two stab wounds to the left side of her chest, which caused severe internal bleeding.

The original autopsy report did not document bite marks. However, on February 6, 1992, Hayne requested an additional examination because he believed there could be injuries caused by teeth. Kemp’s body was then exhumed, and Dr. Michael West examined it on February 7, 1992. West used ultraviolet light and claimed he found marks on Kemp’s right breast, neck area, and arm. He later said some marks were consistent with Howard’s teeth and claimed one mark was made by Howard.

Howard was arrested on February 8, 1992. He denied involvement. According to the Innocence Project, Howard told police he had been at a family gathering during the relevant time period, and multiple people reportedly supported that account.

A Lowndes County grand jury indicted Howard for capital murder on August 19, 1992. The indictment alleged that the murder happened during the commission of rape. His first trial began on May 9, 1994. Howard represented himself, with standby counsel appointed. On May 12, 1994, the jury convicted him of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

In 1997, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed Howard’s first conviction and death sentence. The court found that the trial court should have held a competency hearing before allowing him to represent himself. The court also found error in the handling of his request for standby counsel to deliver closing argument.

Howard was retried in May 2000, this time with attorneys. The second trial again relied heavily on Dr. West’s bite-mark testimony. On May 25, 2000, Howard was again convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 2003.

Years later, the scientific foundation of bite-mark comparison changed significantly. The American Board of Forensic Odontology revised its guidelines, and the Mississippi Supreme Court later noted that the kind of individual-identification testimony used against Howard would not be permitted under modern standards. New DNA testing also failed to connect Howard to the crime scene. Male DNA was found on the knife blade, but Howard was excluded as the source.

On August 27, 2020, the Mississippi Supreme Court vacated Howard’s conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial. The court found that the discredited bite-mark evidence, new DNA testing, and lack of other strong evidence linking Howard to the crime required relief.

Howard was released on December 4, 2020, while prosecutors reviewed whether to retry him. On January 7, 2021, the Lowndes County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the murder charge. The dismissal followed a reinvestigation that discredited the bite-mark and arson evidence used to convict him.

Eddie Lee Howard Jr. spent more than 26 years in prison, much of it on Mississippi’s death row, before his conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed. His case is now treated as a wrongful conviction and exoneration, not as a confirmed murder conviction.