After spending almost 20 years behind bars, nearly 15 of which were on death row, Tim was released on December 14, 2017. He was sentenced to death after being wrongly convicted of capital murder in Ashdown, Ark.
Tim grew up in Ogden, Ark., just outside Texarkana, where his mother and sisters currently reside. He was a diesel mechanic by trade before he was wrongly convicted.
On December 13, 1997, Tim’s best friends Brian and Shanon Day were murdered and the assailant attempted to murder their infant son as well. The state presented the theory that Tim murdered them after impregnating Shanon Day, despite clear medical evidence she was not pregnant at the time of her death.
Tim’s team discovered that DNA testing done in the case and used to help convict him was contaminated — a fact known to the prosecutors but illegally withheld from the defense team. On October 29, 2013, Judge Charles Yeargan granted Tim a new trial based largely on this withheld evidence.
In 2015, Tim’s second trial took place in Ashdown, Ark. He was charged with three capital counts, three first-degree counts, and three second-degree counts. During the trial, the prosecutor, Brian Chesshir, injected racial undertones, all but stating ‘this black man wears our clothes and dates our women’ to the jury. The trial lasted more than two weeks and went to the jury on the Friday afternoon before Mother’s Day. After several hours of deliberation late into the night, the jury reached a compromise verdict: acquittal of all capital and first-degree charges, conviction on the second-degree charges. It was later confirmed by multiple jurors they expected Tim to be released with time served. Unfortunately, Tim went back to prison until his parole in 2017.
Tim Howard walked out of prison December 14, 2017 and is now able to enjoy the rest of his life. He is thriving in Arkansas. He’s been able to see parts of the country he never had. He has close friends and family who love him. He’s worked hard at a steady job since his release and has a budding landscape business on the side.