NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A suspect in a 1998 Louisiana killing says in a lawsuit that a prosecutor and an investigator coerced a teenager to give fabricated eyewitness testimony.
Michael Wearry is awaiting a retrial after his 2002 conviction and death sentence in the slaying of 16-year-old Eric Walber were thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016. His lawsuit says the teen witness has since testified in court that he was coerced into giving false statements in 2002.
The lawsuit was filed for Wearry filed in federal court in Baton Rouge by the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. District Attorney Scott Perriloux and a former Livingston Parish sheriff’s detective, Marlon Kearney Foster, are defendants. The district attorney and sheriff’s offices did not respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.
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