The Barbarity of Executions

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Justice for Willie

There have been plenty of lockdowns for Willie Manning on Mississippi’s death row lately, but at least there have been no executions there since 2012. Jim Hood, the Attorney General, wants that to change. And if that means using nitrogen gas, a firing squad, or an electric chair, then so be it. There are recent precedents in other states for admitting alternatives to lethal injections: Oklahoma permits nitrogen gas, Utah favors the firing squad, and Tennessee has the electric chair.

Hood’s appeal to lawmakers to allow alternative execution methods stems from his wish for the state to maintain executions even if litigation blocks the use of lethal execution drugs. His argument lacks morality. As Pope Francis observes:
“There is discussion in some quarters about the method of killing, as if it were possible to find ways of ‘getting it right.’ … But there is no humane way of killing another person.”

Mississippi lawmakers will soon be confronting this reality. With proper debate they will discover that lethal injections, far from inducing a peaceful sleep, have been designed to disguise the inmate’s pain and appear peaceful. Conversely, firing squads may cause less pain; but their obvious violence is an affront to modern values of civilized behavior. As Jason Silverstein concludes,
“[T]he only real thing distinguishing nitrogen executions from firing squads from lethal injections from electrocutions from hangings from beheadings is our own comfort as witnesses.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi quickly attacked Hood’s proposals as “barbaric”, and the death penalty itself as “cruel and unusual punishment”. It adds:
“[W]e believe that the state should not give itself the right to kill human beings – especially when it kills with premeditation and ceremony, in the name of the law or in the name of its people, and when it does so in an arbitrary and discriminatory fashion.”

We agree. Mississippi should take this chance to reconsider. It is time to abolish the death penalty for good.

Posted in America, capital punishment, executions, Mississippi, torture, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

DNA Tests: Errors Can Occur

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Justice for Willie

In recent years we have come to think of DNA testing as a ‘gold standard’ that can convict or exonerate. But forensics experts urge caution. William Thompson declares:
 “DNA tests are not now and have never been infallible.  Errors in DNA testing occur regularly. DNA evidence has caused false incriminations and false convictions, and will continue to do so.”

Nathan Robinson explains that, as with all forensics, DNA testing arose from the need to prosecute criminals; as a result science’s core principles of neutrality and doubt are compromised. He adds,
“Analysts themselves can be fallible and inept; the risk of corruption and incompetence is no less pronounced simply because the biology has been peer-reviewed.”

And the authors of The Truth Machine* remind us,
‘Police and prosecutorial motives and practices … come into play when DNA evidence is treated less as an abstract source of “truth” than as material that is collected, handled, labeled, and possibly planted.’
They conclude:
‘“DNA” does not transcend mundane, organizational practices or the possibilities that reside in stories of a crime’.

As Willie Manning awaits the results from the testing of some of the crime scene DNA, we should bear those caveats in mind. Other evidence remains important. And the ‘stories’ of the crime suggest Willie’s innocence.

*Michael Lynch, Simon A. Cole, Ruth McNally and Kathleen Jordan   The Truth Machine: the Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting (The University of Chicago Press, 2008), p. 345 and p. 346

 

Posted in DNA testing, forensics, Mississippi, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Not Once, but Twice

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Justice for Willie

Right at the end of 2015, Willie Manning’s name again appeared in a national newspaper: the New York Times reminded its readers about his exoneration earlier in the year. The New York Times was wrong to describe the victims in the case as two white women (they were two black women); this error was copied from a report by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), which has since corrected its paragraph about Willie.

The DPIC report makes it plain that if Mississippi had executed Willie for his 1992 case in May 2013, as it so nearly did, he would have been unable to prove his innocence in the 1993 case:

“On April 21, Mississippi prosecutors dropped all charges against Willie Manning for the murder of two black women in an apartment complex. The Mississippi Supreme court had ruled he was entitled to a new trial because prosecutors had failed to disclose key exculpatory evidence to the defense. Manning’s innocence of the apartment murders almost did not come to light, as he came within hours of being executed for another double homicide that the evidence now suggests he also did not commit. He was granted a stay only after the FBI sent separate letters to the court disclosing flaws in both its ballistics and hair comparison testimony against Manning.”

The five other USA death penalty exonerees from 2015 are also listed in the DPIC report, with the causes of their exoneration described. All the reasons would be familiar to Willie from his own cases (“egregious” police and prosecutorial misconduct, flawed ballistics testimony, failures by the trial lawyer together with a “full spectrum of prosecutorial misconduct” and a conviction based on circumstantial evidence only).

It is good that as 2015 closed Willie remained in the public eye. 2015 was the year when Willie was exonerated in his 1993 case. We sincerely hope that 2016 will bring public realization that Willie Manning was wrongfully sentenced to death not once, but twice.

 

Posted in capital punishmant, death peanlty, exonerations, Mississippi, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

DNA Testing and Other News

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Justice for Willie

DNA Testing Delayed
DNA testing for Willie Manning has been delayed because the Cellmark lab in Dallas, Texas, has been taken over by a lab in Virginia. The Virginia lab will complete the testing.

Ruling on execution drugs expected soon
A panel of federal appellate judges in New Orleans is expected to rule soon whether Mississippi’s current execution drug protocol is legal.

Commissary may close
The Mississippi Corrections Commissioner has suggested that he might soon end the prison commissary program.

We wish Willie a peaceful Christmas and New Year.

 

 

Posted in DNA testing, execution drugs, Fly Manning, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mississippi Prisoners Malnourished

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Justice for Willie

According to the Mississippi Food Network, one in four Mississippians do not have enough to eat:  many therefore use food pantries. Prisoners, however, have no access to these. And according to Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project,
“[Many Mississippi prisoners are] hungry and don’t get adequate food.” Widespread weight loss averaging 20 pounds or more has been recorded at one Mississippi prison by medical experts hired by the ACLU.

Prisoners are allowed to supplement their food from the prison commissary, but the Clarion-Ledger has found that prohibitively high prices are often charged:

“Charging more than four times the retail price for everything from shampoo to snacks is perfectly legal behind Mississippi prison walls.”
Commissary prices of many cereals, snacks, batteries and soap are more than four times higher than that of discount stores in the Jackson area. Pens and over-the-counter medicines cost even more.

This places a huge strain on prisoners’ families, who may already be struggling financially because their main breadwinner is incarcerated, and so have little or no money left to supplement prisoners’ inadequate diet. And, sadly, some inmates have no contact with anyone outside the prison gates, so cannot access even the inflated prices of the commissary.

For Willie Manning this situation exacerbates his already unimaginably challenging predicament. We should spare him a thought during the excesses of the holiday season.

If anyone would like to contribute money to Willie’s prison account, this can be done simply through the ‘JPay’ website. Willie’s ID number is 71931.
Posted in commissary, Death Row, Fly Manning, malnutrition, Mississippi, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, prison commissary, prison conditions, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mississippi Elections – the Bad News

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Justice for Willie

Earlier this month we reported the good news from the Mississippi elections – the ousting of District Attorney Forrest Allgood, who prosecuted both of Willie Manning’s cases. The bad news is that the Attorney General, Jim Hood, remains.

The Attorney General’s office is keen to uphold Willie’s remaining death sentences: Hood vociferously opposed Willie’s request for DNA testing and fingerprint comparison. He has also energetically attempted to shroud the procurement of execution drugs in secrecy, in order to maintain executions. The Attorney General’s enthusiasm for the death penalty, alongside his reputation for shady dealings (see here and here) inspires little confidence.

In 2001, as a district attorney, Hood secured a death sentence for Marlon Howell in a deeply troubling manner: He struck the only two black jurors, misrepresented Howell as a gang leader, and impressed the conservative, all-white jury with his oratory; the defense was poorly funded and unable to counteract the state’s case. A new witness later challenged the conviction, saying,
“I tried to tell the district attorney what I really knew, but he kept trying to tell me what he wanted me to say”.
All key witnesses who had testified against Howell recanted crucial parts of what they had told the jury. Hood, by then AG, sent his agents to visit those key witnesses: as a result all reversed their recantations. He also personally intimidated the new witness, rendering her unable to testify coherently. Howell remains on death row.

As Attorney General, Hood adopts “an almost fanatical pursuit of death-penalty cases”. For instance, his office opposed Michelle Byrom’s request for a hearing to examine new evidence that strongly suggested her innocence, and instead asked for her immediate execution.  Byrom eventually walked free, following a plea deal.

And while Hood has recently acknowledged flaws in the bite mark evidence given by forensic dentist Dr Michael West, his office continues to defend convictions won with West’s testimony, including the death penalty conviction of Eddie Lee Howard. 

Jim Hood is a formidable opponent. Willie continues to need our support.

 

Posted in Willie Manning, Willie Manning, Willie Jerome Manning, Fly Manning, death penalty, capital punishment, Jim Hood, Attorney General, Mississippi, USA | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Allgood’s Departure: Good News!

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Justice for Willie

Another year has passed: today it is exactly twenty-one years since Willie Manning first entered death row.

This year has been a significant one for Willie. In April charges for his 1993 case were dropped, effectively exonerating him in that case. And in June came the announcement that potentially significant DNA evidence for his 1992 case had been detected by a Texas lab. That evidence is still being tested.

After 21 years, Willie must also have been pleased to learn that the prosecutor in both his cases, Forrest Allgood, was defeated in Mississippi elections last week. Although Allgood’s departure is unlikely to affect the future management of Willie’s remaining case, it will nonetheless give Willie a much needed psychological boost.

In both Willie’s cases there are questions about whether Allgood behaved properly. The Jackson Free Press notes the statement that the key witness, Kevin Lucious, made when he recanted his trial testimony:
“Luscious said District Attorney Forrest Allgood… told Luscious that he would not charge him with capital murder if he cooperated.”

And in Willie’s ongoing 1992 case, Allgood built on the false testimony of the FBI hair expert, who wrongly stated that hair in the victim’s car was ‘of Negroid origin’ and was ‘African American’ hair. Allgood repeatedly referred to the hair fragments in his closing argument, linking it with aspects of the case which the jury had been led to associate with Willie:

[Out] of all the people that could have been a burglar of John Wise’s car, how many of them could leave hair fragments in the car, hair fragments that came from a member of the African-American race because that’s what they find when they vacuum the sweepings of the car, that’s what they find in both significantly the passenger’s seat and the driver’s seat, just like it would be if the man rode out there as a passenger and came back a driver…. How many people, ladies and gentlemen, who could leave those fragments, how many of those also left his home on the morning of December 9th…. How many people could have committed this crime, ladies and gentlemen, that could have left those fragments, that left their home carrying a gun and some gloves…. How many people could leave those hair fragments, how many people left their house that morning with the gun and the gloves…. How many people could leave those hair fragments, left the house with the gun and the gloves, was trying to sell a ring and a watch like Jon Steckler’s, and also had the jacket from John Wise’s car…. How many people could leave the fragments, left his house with gun and gloves….

Radley Balko describes Allgood as “[o]ne of America’s worst prosecutors”, and lists many other cases in which Allgood’s behaviour was reprehensible.

Willie will not be alone in celebrating Allgood’s departure.

Posted in African American, capital punishment, death penalty, Death Row, Forrest Allgood, Mississippi, prosecutor misconduct, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Many Positives

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Justice for Willie

Willie Jerome Manning was permitted to seek DNA and fingerprint testing over two years ago, but still there is no news of the final results. Long waits are normal on death row, but this one must be particularly challenging: Willie now knows only too well both the bitterness of hopes dashed, and the anguish of coming close to execution.  

He should, however, draw strength from his strong international profile. His cases are being watched across the globe; for instance, the dismissal of his 1993 case has been noted in the Amnesty UK magazine as being of international significance.

Amnesty clip_final_small

Willie should also take heart from some recent important developments regarding the death penalty:

  • President Obama has said the way the death penalty is implemented is “deeply troubling”.
  • The pope has condemned the death penalty during a speech in the US Congress; four US Supreme Court justices, including the critical ‘swing voter’, Justice Kennedy, were in Congress to hear his speech. 
  • Justice Scalia, despite his own strong personal support for the death penalty, has said “It wouldn’t surprise me at all” if the High Court struck down capital punishment as “unconstitutional.” 
  • The National Association of Evangelicals has voted to “soften its longstanding position supporting capital punishment”. It now accepts the strand of belief that endorses “the sacredness of all life, including the lives of those who perpetrate serious crimes and yet have the potential for repentance and reformation.” 
  • Scandals regarding the administration of the death penalty (botched executions, cases of likely innocence, such as Richard Glossip’s, government secrecy/shady deals/ incompetency involving lethal injection drugs) have resulted in many media articles advocating the end of the death penalty.

Willie claims he was wrongfully convicted in two separate murder cases. If he can prove this, his lamentable predicament will undoubtedly add to the case for abolishing the death penalty. Let us hope this happens soon.

Posted in African American, capital punishment, death peanlty, Fly Manning, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Extremity of Torture

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Justice for Willie

Richard Glossip came close to execution in Oklahoma twice last month. The first time, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted him a stay to allow his lawyers to submit new evidence; but his ensuing appeal was quickly rejected by that court and the US Supreme Court. The second time he was already stripped to his underwear, ready to go into the execution chamber, when a doctor realized that one of the drugs was wrong. This was the third execution date that Glossip had been given this year, and the closest that he came to facing death; not surprisingly, the stress is evident. A fourth execution date was set for 37 days later – the prospect of another agony of waiting to be killed. Thankfully, this was overturned today – there will be no more executions in Oklahoma this year  – but the likelihood of execution in the future remains real.

Willie Manning in Mississippi had ‘only’ one brush with execution, and that not quite as close as Glossip’s.  But Willie’s one experience has scarred him: he has had difficulty orientating himself to cope with the immediate threats of death row and the anxiety that he might again have to endure the stress of awaiting a shameful, possibly painful, unwarranted execution. He has an insight that most of us, thankfully, will never have into Glossip’s predicament; he is more aware than most of the extremity of Glossip’s torture.

Glossip was saved this time by the drugs fiasco. His predecessor on the execution schedule, Charles Warner, was less ‘fortunate’: an autopsy has shown that the same wrong drug (potassium acetate, substituted in error for potassium chloride) was actually administered to him. This is exactly the kind of shambles predicted by defense lawyers in Oklahoma and other states, where new secrecy laws prevent attorneys and the public from knowing if procedures are being followed.

In Mississippi, executions were halted in August by a federal judge; events in Oklahoma have proved him right to rein in the state’s enthusiasm for executions, to prevent Mississippi using outlawed drugs.

Like Willie’s, Glossip’s claim of innocence is compelling: he was convicted on the word of a murderer, who varied his story many times and was rewarded with a sentence of life without parole instead of death. Unlike Willie, though, Glossip cannot point to DNA or fingerprint evidence to prove his innocence; so the drug issue is crucial in giving his lawyers valuable time. We can only hope that more exculpatory evidence is found.

A system that tolerates the predicament of Richard Glossip and Willie Manning – torture based on “a flagrantly unjust outcome for which no one person [can be held] responsible” – is rotten to the core. It needs to end.

Posted in capital punishment, death penalty, executions, Richard Glossip, torture, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prosecutors: Many Bad Apples

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Justice for Willie

The Daily Beast’s series of articles on prosecutors this summer was alarming. This summary gives a taste of the content:
“American prosecutors are powerful officials. They have the power to deprive people of their liberty, destroy their reputations, and even take away their lives. They have virtually unlimited discretion in how they exercise their powers.
And yet, they are essentially exempt from any outside supervision, oversight, or accountability. As a result, they can abuse their powers with impunity. And prosecutors do just that, with devastating consequences both for individual defendants (especially people of color and for the system as a whole.”

The system of electing prosecutors restricts their intake and makes it very difficult for ‘bad apples’ to be removed:
“Incumbent prosecutors win re-election 95 percent of the time …for the simple reason that they frequently run unopposed… It is easy to see why: challengers come from the same local pool of criminal attorneys. About 20 percent of challengers in contested elections for district attorney work in the prosecutor’s office and run against their boss. Most of the other challengers are local criminal defense lawyers who have to cooperate with the district attorney in plea bargaining or face him or her in court. In either case the costs of losing a race against a prosecutor are high.”

Prosecutors seeking re-election become more aggressive in court, abandoning fairness in favor of convictions. Voters tend to hear about little other than the prosecutor’s rate of convictions (easily manipulated by dropping charges or settling cases through plea bargaining); they do not learn whether the prosecutor is committed to justice. For instance, how many people wonder why D.A. Forrest Allgood, the prosecutor in both Willie’s cases, has a record of winning murder convictions for people who are later found to be innocent? 

Earlier this year Allgood dropped charges for Willie’s 1993 case, following the key witness’s revelation that he was pressured into giving false testimony by officials, including Allgood himself.

In Willie’s remaining case, Allgood systematically dismissed African-American jurors for reasons that were not obstacles for white jurors, or for reasons such as reading magazines aimed at African-Americans.* The predominance of (racially biased and more punitive) white jurors statistically increased the chances of Willie receiving both a guilty verdict and a death sentence. 

During Willie’s trial Allgood built on the false testimony provided by the FBI hair expert: the prosecutor suggested to the jury that Willie was in the victim’s car. This was a critical element in the case (no other physical evidence directly placed Willie anywhere near the scene of the murders). Allgood bolstered the impact of this unwarranted suggestion by improperly calling Willie a monster.

Shocking though Allgood’s behavior is, the staggering truth is that he is far from alone. Judge Alex Kozinski has caused controversy by referring to an “epidemic” of prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense; but little has changed. And, as the Daily Beast points out,
“…prosecutors are hardly ever punished, even for egregious misconduct, like getting witnesses to lie, using fraudulent evidence, and hiding exculpatory evidence, because prosecutors are immune from being sued civilly.”

It is time for this to change.

 *There is even evidence that in Mississippi prosecutors’ training has included instruction as to how to disguise their ‘striking’ of black jurors (see the Equal Justice Initiative’s paper, Illegal Racial Discrimination: a Continuing Legacy, page 20).
Posted in capital punishment, death penalty, Mississippi, prosecutorial misconduct, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment