COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) -- A Lowndes County Circuit Court judge has signed an order to have DNA evidence collected in a Columbus murder case sent to a lab for further testing.
The order, dated February 26, 2013, was filed Wednesday as part of a federal habeas appeal for an evidentiary hearing by Eddie Lee Howard, Jr.
Howard, 59, is on death row after he was convicted of capital murder in the death of Georgia Kemp, 82, in February of 1992.
Authorities say bite marks on the victim and other evidence linked Howard to her death.
In 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court ordered the evidence to be tested again as part of a claim by Howard new evidence would prove his innocence.
The evidence collected is being sent to a lab in Texas for DNA testing and will be compared to new DNA samples collected from Howard.
The testing will be paid for by the Innocence Project.
