Two briefs supporting Willie Manning have been submitted to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The national and local Innocence Projects use theirs to show that jailhouse informant testimony, unreliable forensic science, and prosecutorial misconduct are “leading contributing factors to wrongful conviction”. They also highlight “a pattern of problematic evidence and wrongful convictions” in other cases brought by Willie’s prosecutor.

The other brief, filed by American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Mississippi Office of State Public Defender, and Mississippi National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, delves into the shamefully high chances of a person of color suffering injustice.

We learn that aspects of Willie’s case are in line with Black predominance in murder case exonerations. For instance, three key witnesses at his trial perjured themselves by making false accusations: in other murder cases undermined by false accusations and perjury, 59% exonerees were Black. And the witness tampering and bribery in Willie’s case are echoed in other cases where the murder case defendants are Black.

But much of the filing is devoted to jury selection and its impact on the verdict. We hear that under Doug Evans, Chief Prosecutor of Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District between 1992 and 2017, Mississippi prosecutors excluded Black prospective jurors at a rate nearly 4½ times that of white prospective jurors. Prosecutor Forrest Allgood struck Black jurors at Willie’s trial for spurious reasons, with the result that the jury of twelve had “only two Black jurors in a county where 40% of the population is Black and where 28 of 85, or 33%, of the individuals in the venire were Black.”

As well as discriminating against Black citizens who could have made good jurors, rigged juries can have huge consequences for the trial outcome. On average, Black jurors are more skeptical of the police, more concerned with false convictions, and less likely to convict Black defendants. And in more diverse juries, white jurors process “trial information more systematically” and are “less likely to believe the defendant is guilty”.

Such information should surely be of enormous importance to the Mississippi Supreme Court, where only one of the nine Justices is Black. It is known that “judges’ life experiences shape how they understand the law and facts in front of them”; the Mississippi Justices likely need support to understand how casually discrimination can incriminate.

We trust that the Court, newly recomposed following November’s elections*, will pay Willie’s two supporting briefs the attention they deserve, in order to make its decision systematically and dispassionately. Willie’s life depends on it.

*Unfortunately, Justice Kitchens, whose dissent supported Willie, has now been replaced. The other Justice voted out was in the majority that  opposed Willie’s motion.