Maine’s high court is vacating the 2022 murder conviction of a woman over a stabbing death, and is ordering her to get a new trial.
The Judicial Supreme Court has determined that expert testimony in the trial of Kailie Brackett was flawed and that the prosecutor mischaracterized the evidence.
Brackett had been convicted of killing 43-year-old Kimberly Neptune, who was found dead in her Pleasant Point apartment with 484 stab wounds.
Brackett appealed her conviction and 55-year jail sentence in September and will now get a new trial.
The high court determined the trial court erred in allowing expert testimony that linked Brackett to a bloody sock-clad footprint found at the crime scene.
The court determined that the expert’s methodology lacked scientific rigor and that the prosecutor mischaracterized the evidence during closing arguments.
It’s not yet known when Brackett will be retried for Neptune’s murder.
Another suspect in the murder case, Donnell Dana, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor hindering apprehension charge after a jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge.
