Petitioner asks Sullivan Court to reopen Christopher David Hodge conviction, cites new impeachment evidence against medical examiner

Christopher David Hodge asked the Sullivan Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday to allow a new hearing on his decades-old conviction after counsel said newly discovered material impeaches the credibility of the trial medical examiner.

The petition seeks relief under a writ of error coram nobis, arguing that recently located news articles and records about a federal prosecution of a key witness, Dr. O. C. Smith, show that Smith was not a credible expert at the time of Hodge’s trial. "Twenty years later, Mr. Hodge gets with me, and we stumble across evidence, some some articles, newspaper articles and a background check that he was federally prosecuted for faking a, bomb threat," petitioner counsel Candida Harvey told the court. "I guess during the course of the investigation, they found that he had some kind of mental conditions. I guess he craved attention, had a penchant for dishonesty. That's not my words. That's theirs."

Why it matters: The petition is untimely under the applicable statute of limitations, and counsel says the only basis to toll the filing deadline here is proof of actual innocence or newly discovered evidence that would satisfy controlling precedent identified in the record as "Clardy." If the court finds the new material,…