Ex Parte Ward, 1090132 (Ala. 6-3-2011)

MURDOCK, Justice.

In 1991, Carl Brad Ward was convicted of the murder of Jeanette Smith Little, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On direct appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence. Ward v. State, 610 So.2d 1190 (Ala.Crim.App.1992).

In September 2008, Ward, acting pro se, filed the present Rule 32, Ala. R.Crim. P., petition, his second. Ward’s Rule 32 petition, as amended and “refiled,” alleged, among other things, that newly discovered material facts require his conviction to be vacated. Ward contends that he recently discovered reports of forensic…