Miss. Supreme Court reverses CP conviction after trial court denied indigent defendant money for expert witness

In Lowe v. State, 2011-CT-00762-SCT (Miss. 2013), the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial the conviction of a man for child pornography crimes because the trial court had denied the defendant's request for funds to hire an expert to help refute the testimony of the state's expert.

The defendant was convicted of five counts of exploitation of a child after child pornography was discovered on his computer. He had been found to be indigent, and the trial court appointed him counsel.

At trial, the state planned to use a computer forensics expert to testify as to his examination of the defendant's computer. The defendant sought funding for his own expert to also examine the computer, suggesting that testimony about the computers user accounts would help in his defense. The trial court ultimately denied his request.

Trial testimony indicated that there were other users on the computer, but the government expert concluded that it was not likely that anyone other than the defendant had downloaded the images.

The state Supreme Court reversed, finding that "the circuit court deprived Lowe of a fundamentally fair trial by denying him the assistance of a computer forensics expert when the State relied exclusively on its own expert to identify Lowe as the perpetrator of the offenses charged."