LATEST NEWS

Mr. Lamotte is Exonerated! Yesterday, October 15, 2025, the Kentucky Supreme Court denied the Commonwealth’s motion for discretionary review, affirming the Court of Appeals' reversal of conviction of Mr. John Brandon Lamotte! After nearly 9 years of fighting this wrongful accusation, conviction, and incarceration, Mr. Lamotte is finally exonerated and his innocence proven. Mr. Lamotte was represented by Amy Robinson Staples (EP), Whitney Allen (KIP), and Roy Durham (KY DPA Appeals). Investigator Jimmer Dudley (EP), Lou Ann Marston, and Jackie Knarr were also integral parts of the Lamotte team; his exoneration would not have happened without each person on this team fighting for him. For those who wish to read further, a fuller description of the case is below. Mr. Lamotte was wrongfully convicted in Franklin Circuit Court in 2019 of Assault 1st for the alleged stabbing of his neighbor and friend in 2017. But just months after his conviction, the victim recanted in writing and to at least three separate witnesses on three separate occasions, stating she had sent an innocent man to prison and that Mr. Lamotte had not assaulted her. The evidence supports that either her ex-boyfriend had stabbed her (which is what she told EMS upon their arrival, and exculpatory photos of the ex-boyfriend’s injured and scraped hands and arms were withheld from defense), or she stabbed herself in a suicide attempt, as she had attempted suicide previously and was recently released from a psychiatric hospital. When EMS arrived the blood was dried and she walked herself to the ambulance. Mr. Lamotte appealed his conviction, and during the pendency of his direct appeal, KIP and EP counsel filed a CR 60.02 motion to vacate his conviction based upon the victim’s perjured statements and additional Brady evidence that was uncovered during post-conviction investigation. The direct appeal was held in abeyance pending the post-conviction proceedings. The Franklin Circuit Court held an evidentiary hearing on the post-conviction claims in August of 2020, ultimately denying Mr. Lamotte’s motion to vacate. Mr. Lamotte appealed and consolidated his two pending appeals. In August 2023, the Court of Appeals issued an opinion reversing and remanding (Lamotte I). The COA held there was not sufficient evidence of serious physical injury presented at trial to convict Mr. Lamotte and mandated that on remand, the trial court must enter an order for judgement notwithstanding the verdict. Weeks later, however, in its own words, the COA reluctantly granted the AG’s petition for rehearing. While on rehearing. Mr. Lamotte filed a motion for bond pending appeal, which the Franklin Circuit Court denied without considering the merits. Mr. Lamotte appealed this denial to the Court of Appeals. On March 7, 2025, the COA entered an order directing the Franklin Circuit Court to fully consider the bond motion on the merits. Then, on March 14, 2025, the Court of Appeals rendered its second opinion, 70 pages in length, reversing Mr. Lamotte’s conviction (Lamotte II). The opinion is attached. Soon after, the AG, upon request of the Commonwealth's Attorney, filed a motion for discretionary review with the Kentucky Supreme Court. Because the appellate court had twice reversed his conviction, Mr. Lamotte renewed his motion for bond pending appeal. The Franklin Circuit Court held two adversarial bond hearings, gave the victim’s family two separate opportunities to submit victim impact statements, and ordered Mr. Lamotte be evaluated by a mental health professional before it would consider his release on bond. Mr. Lamotte and counsel complied with every order and jumped through every hoop, until the circuit court ultimately granted his release. On August 1, 2025, Mr. Lamotte was released on bond. Pictured are his team and family picking him up from KSR. Even then, the Commonwealth continued its quest to wrongfully incarcerate Mr. Lamotte, filing a motion to revoke his release just last month. But after 8+ long years, and with the Kentucky Supreme Court’s Order denying MDR, the case is finally over. Mr. Lamotte is now exonerated and free to move forward with his life and to try to heal from the injustice inflicted on him and his family.

KIP Attended the International Innocence Network Conference in New Orleans, LA.

KIP is the recipient of the Bloodsworth grant from the BJA. It is through this grant that KIP has hired additional staff to identify cases where post-conviction DNA testing may prove a wrongfully convicted person’s innocence. KIP applies rigorous standards of review and investigation before determining a person has a claim of innocence, and if there is untested evidence or prior inclusive testing, that may not be tested to support that claim of innocence. The grant funded staff has worked on this identification and review process since 2020. In this review process a number of cases have been identified for investigation of an innocence claim. To date a number of motions have been filed in courts across Kentucky seeking DNA testing. KIP has secured three agreements from prosecutors in Jefferson, Scott and Adair counties to conduct the grant funded testing through state and private forensic laboratories.

Update: New DNA testing results not only prove Burden’s innocence but have provided the DNA profile of the true perpetrator. A week-long evidentiary hearing was recently held in Burden’s case, at which his attorneys presented the new DNA evidence as well as evidence of his false confessions that were obtained through coercion and unsound police practices in the mid-1980s. Update: KYSC denies AG’s Motion for Discretionary Review, COA Opinion Reversing Circuit Court’s Denial of DNA Testing Stands. KIP presently represents Mr. Burden on a post-conviction DNA testing motion. Mr. Burden seeks DNA testing in a murder case from 1986. Mr. Burden entered an Alford plea after threat of the death penalty. The Alford plea allowed Mr. Burden to plead guilty, acknowledging there was evidence against him that may result in a guilty verdict at trial while maintaining his innocence of the charges. Mr. Burden sought testing of crucial evidence from the crime scene that would definitively point to the true perpetrator of the crime. The original trial court denied his request for DNA testing. KIP appealed this denial, and Mr. Burden’s appeal is currently set for oral argument before the Kentucky Court of Appeals on September 20, 2023. Mr. Burden is represented by Miranda Hellman, staff attorney at KIP.

KIP represents Hope White in her efforts to secure DNA testing of items that have the power to prove her innocence. Hope has maintained her innocence for 15 years. Hope was convicted of the murder of the murder of Julie Burchett in Monticello, Kentucky in 2009. Many items of biological evidence were left untested at the time of her trial. She was convicted based largely on the inconsistent testimony of three purported eye-witnesses with pending charges. KIP filed for post-conviction DNA testing based on the Kentucky statute KSR 422.285 in 2020. Hope was denied this DNA testing by the original trial court, the Court of Appeals, and most recently the Kentucky Supreme Court denied discretionary review of this request. KIP continues to fight to the test the DNA evidence in Hope’s case.