The JFP reported in 2006 that former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters and his then-assistant district attorney, Bobby DeLaughter, excluded DNA evidence in 1994 that likely would have exonerated Willis of the crime. Maw said she suspected Peters and DeLaughter knew the DNA evidence would throw their conviction and successfully appealed to Judge Breland Hilburn to dump it, but only after another judge refused to play along with them.