I Can’t Breathe

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Justice for Willie

On recent letters from Willie Jerome Manning the envelopes have carried a message from him: “I can’t breathe”. These, the repeated last words of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man killed in July in a police chokehold, have become a byword for lack of justice for African Americans killed by police. In marking his envelopes thus, Willie highlights the link between police and state killings of African Americans in the USA.

The racism involved in Willie’s case was emphasized by his supporters after his trial and sentencing two decades ago for the murders of two white students. Reporting at the time, The Reflector quoted Dr Douglas Conner, who was then Vice President of Oktibbeha County NAACP:

“Manning was charged four months after the murders of Miller and Steckler and was chosen from a list of 22 black suspects the police believed capable of the crime. No white suspects were on the list. No DNA testing was done on the white skin found under Tiffany Miller’s fingernails, and no physical evidence was brought forth in the case.

(The evidence was) circumstantial, shaky, confusing, unbelievable and poorly rehearsed.”

The Starkville Daily News carried similar quotations from others who witnessed the trial. For instance, Allie Robinson linked the outcome with the racist injustices suffered by African Americans in the past:

“A lynching, that is all this is – a lynching. You’ve been killing us too long. We’ve been in the back woods too long. You killed our grandparents, and now you are killing our children.”

Willie’s call for recognition of the racism that has landed him on death row is echoed by Charles P. Pierce’s article in Esquire about the execution last month of Robert Holsey. Holsey was African American, had intellectual disabilities, and was represented at trial by a racist and alcoholic lawyer, who was too drunk at the trial to communicate his client’s disability. For Pierce there is an obvious connection with other events:

“Anyone who can’t see the political and sociological tissue connecting the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (both African Americans killed recently at police hands), and the revelations of a decade’s worth of CIA brutality, and the execution of Robert Holsey isn’t looking hard enough.”

It is indeed shocking that the justice system failed to prevent Holsey’s execution.

Willie maintains the death sentences in both his cases were the result of flawed and racist policing, ratified by a flawed and racist justice system. Because of both he has spent 20 years under the threat of death, in the harsh conditions of Mississippi’s death row. We can only endorse his heartfelt cry, “I can’t breathe”.

Posted in African American, America, capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Death Row, Fly Manning, Injustice, miscarriages of justice, Mississippi, Oktibbeha County, police misconduct, racial discrimination, racism, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Message from Willie

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Justice for Willie

Dear everyone

I must have written you a hundred letters in my mind. Sometimes I just lay here and think of all the things I want to say – but for one reason or another – I always find it difficult to block out all of the nonsense when I’m feeling in the mood to write.

I’ve been trying to figure out what’s happen to me. There was a time when my tolerance level was as good as it could be and I could block things out and write for hours. Not so much now. I’ve been trying to stay focus and fight my way through it. That’s kinda what I’m going to try a little harder to do while going forward. I’ve been trying to prepare myself for the past week – just trying to focus on blocking stuff out. It’s really difficult.

After all that has happened to get us (case wise) to where we are – my spirits should be through the roof. Especially when I know what loyal and loving people that I have in my life and in my corner. For someone in my situation it doesn’t get any better than that. But yet I have this void that often makes me feel as if it’s me against the world. My spirits aren’t happy at all.

I’m just wore down and tired of fighting about stuff that I shouldn’t have to fight about. It seems like going through everything that I had to go through in 2013 in dealing with the courts and a few of these guys, my tolerance level is at zero.

Tell everyone I said hello.

Willie Manning

December 2014

Posted in African American, capital punishment, criminal justice USA, death penalty, Death Row, Fly Manning, Injustice, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi Supreme Court, Oktibbeha County, Parchman, post conviction review, prison conditions, solitary confinement, USA injustice, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mississippi Hustle*

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Justice for Willie

Last month a bombshell was dropped in Mississippi: the resignation of the Corrections Commissioner, Christopher Epps, was swiftly followed by his arraignment on charges of accepting bribes of over $1m from a business man and former sheriff’s deputy, Cecil McCrory. It is alleged that in return Epps arranged contracts for firms that were owned or advised by McCrory, which then operated within the Mississippi prison system.

The firms included GT Enterprises, which for a few months from 2007 to 2008 supplied commissary services to Mississippi state prisoners. Epps then approved the assignment of GT Enterprise’s commissary services to Centric Group (doing business as Keefe Commissary, LLC); the transaction resulted in a large profit for McCrory. The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) has expressed concerns about the Keefe Commissary’s operation.

Another Epps-approved company, AdminPros, paid McCrory as an advisor.  The company began monitoring healthcare at Mississippi state prisons in 2011 and at private prisons two years later, even though there were no medical or nursing professionals among its monitoring staff.

Lawsuits are pending targeting the East Mississippi Correctional Facility for mentally ill inmates and the poor treatment of juveniles at the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility. For Willie and others on death row there have also been problems: families and friends of inmates have reported that there is difficulty receiving medical care, poor food, inflated commissary prices, flooding (including raw sewage in cells), electrical fires, leaks in the roof and inadequate levels of personal safety.

Epps has been credited with dismantling an infamous solitary confinement unit at Mississippi State Penitentiary, and trying to scale back tough-on-crime sentencing laws. But if he is found guilty of the charges against him he will be remembered as someone who cared little about prisoners and prison staff, and much more about his own personal gain.

*The FBI has dubbed the investigation into Epps and McCrory the ‘Mississippi Hustle’.

Posted in America, Cecil McCrory, Christopher Epps, corruption, criminal justice, Death Row, FBI, Fly Manning, Injustice, Mississippi, Mississippi Corrections Commissioner, Mississippi State Penitentiary, no-bid contracts, prison conditions, USA, Willie Fly Manning, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, Willie Manning Mississippi Death Row | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lethal Deadlines

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Justice for Willie

Question: When does a deadline become a ‘dead’ line?

Answer: When the deadline in question is the crucial one that allows death row inmates to appeal their state convictions in federal courts. If defense attorneys miss this deadline it can lead to death by execution.

The Marshall Project informed us earlier this month that over 80 prisoners have been affected by such missed deadlines; shockingly, 16 of these prisoners have already been executed.

One especially poignant example cited is that of Gregory Scott Johnson, whose inexperienced attorney used first-class mail to send his appeal to the federal court, three days before it was due. It arrived one day late. The court decreed that the attorney had ‘bungled’, and that Mr Johnson was responsible. He was executed soon afterwards.

The article explains that in Willie Manning’s case the deadline was missed not because of attorney error but because the State broke its promise to provide Willie with a suitable attorney:

“In Mississippi, Willie Jerome Manning’s first appointed attorney withdrew, citing his “most limited knowledged [sic] and familiarity with post-conviction proceedings at all.” A second attorney also withdrew, citing his lack of qualifications. A third attorney was appointed — by a court order that was misfiled, adding to the delays — seven months after Manning’s habeas deadline.”

The article does not report the state court’s exacerbation of Willie’s abandonment when it ignored his attempts to appoint a lawyer of his choice.

Fortunately, a district court excused Willie’s failure to meet the limitations period; however, this decision counted for nothing when the federal court of appeals disagreed with the ruling. Willie’s execution date was set, based on the missed deadline.

By good fortune Willie was able to argue that evidence associated with his case should be tested for DNA. He suffered the trauma of near execution, but considers himself lucky to have been spared at the eleventh hour. The DNA testing is now pending.

In a further twist affecting Willie’s other case earlier this year, the state court readily excused a missed deadline on the part of prosecutors, although the prosecutors gave no reason for the lapse. In vain did Willie’s attorney claim ‘gross inequity’: the filing was permitted well after the deadline had passed.*

The two missed deadlines arose in very different circumstances, but with both there is strong evidence in Willie’s favor. Yet both times it is the State that profited.

Willie’s experience surely demonstrates that the saga of deadly deadlines is a mere symptom of something much bigger: an overall, deeply entrenched bias against those pleading for their lives on death row.

*Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi. 2013-CA-00882-SCT. Response in Opposition to State’s Request for Enlargement of Time to File Brief filed in the Supreme Court of the State of Mississippi. Filed March 14, 2014. (State of Mississippi Judiciary, web, accessed March 17, 2014).
Posted in capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Death Row, execution, Fly Manning, Injustice, legal bias, Lori St John, Marshall Project, miscarriages of justice, missed deadline, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, post conviction lawyers, post conviction review, procedural default, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twenty Wasted Years

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Justice for Willie

Today, November 10 2014, is a significant landmark for Willie Jerome Manning: on this day it is twenty years since he first entered Mississippi’s death row. When he was taken onto death row the first official White House website had just been launched under the Presidency of Bill Clinton; and cell phones were the size of house bricks. Twenty years ago Willie’s daughter was just two years old; since then she has gone through childhood and adolescence, and is now a grown woman of twenty-two. A lot can happen in twenty years.

For Willie, however, all this has passed him by. For twenty years – a staggering 7,305 days – there has been just the monotony and isolation of his tiny cell, a monotony broken only by walks to and from the shower room, and, if the weather is fine on weekdays, to a single-man yard pen (cage) outside for an hour’s very limited exercise.

In this harsh environment, Willie has had to focus on the depressing details of four murders, and discover the complexity – and sometimes apparent perversity – of the legal process. 2006 was a terrible year, when his hope of imminent exoneration and release was snatched from him with an unexpected and unexplained court decision. 2013 was traumatic: he came within hours of execution with his request for DNA testing unmet. He coped well until he received the stay of execution: since then he has suffered from extreme stress and anxiety as a result of so nearly being killed.

Now, at last, things seem to be going better for Willie. DNA evidence for his first case has been found, and is being held securely, pending testing; and his second case reached oral argument in the Mississippi Supreme Court two weeks ago, broadcast to the world via a Youtube link. But after twenty years of hardship and disappointment it is immensely hard for him to remain focused on clearing his name; it is his supporters now who sustain him. As he said in a recent letter,

“It’s only because of everyone who cares about me – who has put in so much hard work to get where I am – that I survive.”

Please send Willie a message of support and encouragement here (foot of the page): we will pass it on to him. As he contemplates twenty wasted years, your messages really will make a difference.

 

Posted in African American injustice, American justice, criminal justice, death penalty, death penalty USA, Death Row, DNA testing, execution, Fly Manning, Injustice, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, Mississippi Supreme Court, Oktibbeha County, prison conditions, solitary confinement, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Bottom Line: “Mr Manning did not get a fair trial.”

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Justice for Willie

Willie Jerome Manning’s oral arguments for his 1993 case were heard in the Mississippi Supreme Court last week (at the time of writing it can still be viewed at the State of Mississippi Judiciary). The case relates to the murders of two elderly ladies, Emmoline Jimmerson and Alberta Jordan, at the Brookville Garden Apartment complex in Starkville, Mississippi, in January 1993. Willie did not become a suspect until nearly 14 months afterwards; no witnesses came forward to testify against him until then.

The oral hearing explored issues related to:

  • the fully recanted testimony of Kevin Lucious, the only witness who had originally placed Willie at the victims’ apartment (Lucious and his then girlfriend, Likeesha Jones, testified at the post-conviction hearing that their original statements were made while they were being pressured and threatened by law enforcement.)
  • undisclosed police canvass notes that appear to corroborate Mr Lucious’s recantation (During the post-conviction investigation these notes were found in the Starkville Police Department files. The police chief stated at the evidentiary hearing that he had copied the whole thing and given it to the District Attorney.)
  • an undisclosed page of a crime lab report that noted the size of a bloody shoe print found next to one of the bodies, which was 3 sizes smaller than Willie’s shoe size (This significant page was found during post-conviction research in the crime lab files; it appears that inadvertently it was not passed on to law enforcement or the District Attorney before the trial, so was not available to the defense, and not seen by the jury.)

Willie’s attorney, David Voisin, argued that either the District Attorney would have known about the information that was not disclosed to the defense and so was suppressing it; or, in the alternative, that the trial defense attorneys were ineffective in obtaining that evidence.

Justice Randolph questioned what difference it makes whether it was the State or the defense counsel that was at fault; Mr Voisin responded,

“From my perspective it doesn’t really matter as long as Mr Manning gets a new trial, but in this case the Circuit Judge did find non-disclosure by the State for the canvass notes, and that those materials were exculpatory; but he just did not find them material.” (See here, 44.35.)

He added,

“The bottom line is that Mr Manning did not get a fair trial because defense counsel did not have the means to impeach the most important witness that the State had, who was providing the most important testimony.” (See here, 1.00.30.)

Special Assistant Attorney General Melanie Thomas speculated that Lucious may have been resident at the Brookville Garden Apartments in reality even though he was not resident there on paper; however, Justice King recalled that at the trial the State went to great lengths to establish where Lucious was living at the time of the murders.

Justice Dickinson raised the possibility of improper conduct by the State:

“The two pieces of information that are missing are pieces of information that it seems at least arguable would have been favourable to Mr Manning’s defense. And they’re both missing from the files that were provided to defense counsel. Do you find that odd?”

Ms Thomas did not.

There is more about this case, and Willie’s other case, on the home page of this website.

Posted in Brookville Garden, capital punishment, criminal justice USA, death penalty, death row intellectual disabiliy, Fly Manning, Ineffective trial attorneys, Injustice, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, Mississippi Supreme Court, Oktibbeha County Circuit Court, perjured testimony, post-conviction DNA evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, recanting witness, Starkville, USA injustice, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Watch Willie’s Oral Argument Live!

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Justice for Willie

If you wish to bypass media reports and instead listen live to the arguments in Willie Jerome Manning’s second case, you can do so next Monday. A webcast from the Mississippi Supreme Court will allow access to the court proceedings from anywhere in the world.

You can view the oral argument for Willie’s Brookville Garden case (involving the murders of two elderly women) at the State of Mississippi Judiciary, on Monday October 27 2014 at 1.30 PM CDT. You may need to try using different browsers in order to find one that works. Instructions for viewing, and for access to the court, are given here.

Please note that the whole webcast should last not much more than one hour (each side is allowed half an hour to submit their argument).

If you are watching from outside the State of Mississippi, please check the difference in time between your location and Mississippi. If you are outside the USA, please be aware that Daylight Saving Time in the USA ends the weekend after the webcast (unlike in Europe, for instance, where Daylight Saving Time ends the weekend before – so for the week of the webcast the time difference will be one hour less than usual).

If you are unable to watch the webcast live, you should still be able to view it once it is  archived at the link given above.

We are grateful that the webcast will allow transparency in the proceedings. We urge you to watch.

 

Posted in Brookville Garden, capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Fly Manning, incentivized witness testimony, Injustice, miscarriages of justice, Mississippi, Mississippi Supreme Court, Oktibbeha County, perjured witness testimony, prosecutor misconduct, suppressed evidence, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, witness testimony, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Bias of White Americans

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Justice for Willie

It seems that racial perceptions of crime have helped to create biased, over-harsh and counterproductive criminal justice policies in the USA. A report published last month* establishes that white Americans significantly overestimate the proportion of crimes committed by racial minorities. For instance, a 2010 survey concluded that white people overestimate by 20-30% the proportion of burglaries, illegal drug sales and juvenile crime committed by African Americans. The report outlines the process by which such racial bias leads to many white people favoring punitive sentencing; this in turn weakens trust in the justice system and compromises public safety.

The continuing bias of the white American public is perhaps not surprising, given that even some policymakers make public statements that inaccurately associate crime with racial minorities. The media often and influentially fuel the fire, misleadingly focusing on crime victims as whites, perpetrators as blacks. In this they apparently “us(e) stereotypes grounded in White racism and White fear of Black crime.” Empathy towards people of color is further inhibited by a tendency to avoid even naming black and Latino crime suspects, whereas white suspects are more frequently individualized.

The report demonstrates that white Americans working in criminal justice are not immune from bias. Unfortunately, this prejudice is transferred into many decisions that detrimentally impact people of color at every stage of the criminal justice system:

“From police officers’ selection of whom to stop and search, judges’ and administrators’ bail determinations, prosecutors’ charging and plea bargaining decisions, to parole board recommendations about whom to release – each stage of the criminal justice system is affected by policies and discretion that often unintentionally disfavor low-income individuals and people of color.”

It is against this backdrop, then, that the cases of Willie Jerome Manning are set. When racial bias is factored in we can deduce that the white citizens of Mississippi are unlikely to take as seriously as they should the many anomalies in both Willie’s cases. White dominated media outlets probably focus more on the white victims in one of his cases than if Willie were himself white; they are also more unlikely to present him as an individual than if he were white. The unjustified striking of black jurors at one of his trials makes sense when examined through the lens of racial bias; and a predominance of (racially biased and more punitive) white jurors statistically increased the chances of him receiving both a guilty verdict and a death sentence.

The report concludes with recommendations:

“The media, researchers, policymakers, and criminal justice practitioners can draw on proven interventions to reduce racial perceptions of crime and mitigate their effects on the justice system.”

For instance, for the media these include “expanding sources beyond criminal justice professionals, contextualizing crime within broader underlying social problems, providing in-depth coverage of more typical crimes rather than highlighting anomalous ones, and auditing content to compare coverage with regional crime trends”.

We can only hope that policies such as these will be implemented in Mississippi in time to help Willie.

* Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies, authored by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., research analyst at The Sentencing Project

Posted in African American, capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, death penalty unconstitutionality, Death Row, Fly Manning, Injustice, media bias, miscarriages of justice, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, police misconduct, punitive sentencing, racial perceptions of crime, racial prejudice, racism, Sentencing Project, USA, victims of crime, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prosecutors’ Belief in their own Infallibility

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Justice for Willie

It is hard to know what is most shocking about the case of mentally disabled Henry Lee McCollum*, exonerated and released earlier this month after spending 30 years on death row in North Carolina. It is shocking that his mental disability did not preclude the death penalty in his case. It is perhaps even more shocking that he was questioned by police for five hours under extreme pressure until he produced a confession, to make the interrogation stop. It is scandalous that his confession must have been fed to him by the police. It is disturbing that police hid evidence that was favourable to him. It is shameful that the police’s exclusive focus on McCollum prevented them from arresting the true murderer, who was thus free to commit another murder.

The distressing list extends further. One of the US Supreme Court judges, Justice Antonin Scalia, specifically cited McCollum’s case as an example of a crime so heinous that it would be hard to argue against lethal injection for him. (It is worth noting that Justice Scalia also believes that execution is a just end for anybody who eventually proves his innocence, provided he or she originally had a fair and full trial.) And it was McCollum’s image that the North Carolina Republican Party selected and publicized, as part of their 2010 campaign to demonstrate the dangers of being soft on crime.

But what perhaps seems most bizarre is that even after DNA testing has proved conclusively that a different man was the murderer, the original district attorney in McCollum’s case, Joe Freeman Britt, remains convinced of McCollum’s guilt.

In his book, Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America (Vintage, 2013) Clive Stafford Smith advances a view about prosecutors that could explain this misplaced zeal:

“As a matter of human nature, it is probably inevitable that those who spend their lives sending people to prison become increasingly converted to this notion of prosecutorial infallibility. It would be difficult to drive to work every day pondering how many innocent people you might deprive of liberty today. There is a second self-selection procedure, whereby those who continue to harbour doubts move on from the prosecutor’s office quite rapidly. The remainder confirm each other’s biases around the coffee machine until the wagons are fully circled.”

Prosecutors’ prejudices are strengthened by legal protection. The ‘doctrine of sovereign immunity’ makes it impossible to sue a prosecutor who frames an innocent person for capital murder.

Just like McCollum, Willie Jerome Manning has walked a long and difficult road to gain the DNA testing that could exonerate him and may identify a murderer. Like McCollum, Willie has suffered from hugely negative publicity. Is it possible that, as happened with McCollum, Willie’s unwarranted notoriety derives ultimately from prosecutors’ misplaced belief in their own infallibility?

 

*McCollum was convicted alongside his mentally disabled half-brother, Leon Brown, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape. Brown was only 15 at the time of the crime. He was exonerated and released at the same time as McCollum.

Posted in African American, capital punishment, death penalty, Death Row, DNA testing, doctrine of sovereign immunity, Fly Manning, Henry Lee McCollum, Injustice, mental disability, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, North Carolina, police misconduct, prosecutors, US Supreme Court, USA injustice, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, witness pressured, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Prosecutors hid evidence of innocence’

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Justice for Willie

‘Death row inmate: Prosecutors hid evidence of innocence’, headlines this week’s Clarion Ledger article about the case of Jeffrey Havard, who is held alongside Willie on the Parchman death row. Havard is convicted of inflicting sexual abuse on a baby girl and then shaking her to death; but he maintains her death was a tragic accident.

The symptoms of ‘shaken baby syndrome’ are no longer considered conclusive evidence of abuse, as they were when Havard was convicted. But the Clarion Ledger article focuses on Havard’s allegation that prosecutors concealed evidence that the State pathologist, Dr Steven Hayne, told them he found no evidence of sexual abuse.

In fact, prosecutors openly contradicted Hayne’s findings: one of them told the jury Hayne would “come and testify for you about his findings and about how he confirmed the nurses’ and doctors’ worst fears this child had been abused and the child had been penetrated.”

Next month Willie will also be presenting evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. During oral argument on October 27 2014 his lawyer will state that in his 1993 case (involving the murders of two elderly ladies) prosecutors presented false evidence, and failed to disclose evidence favorable to Willie. You can watch the proceedings at the Mississippi Supreme Court website at 1.30 PM on October 27, as explained in the Court order). We urge you to do this if you can.

Posted in abusive head trauma, Brookville Garden, capital punishment, criminal justice USA, death penalty, death penalty USA, Death Row, Fly Manning, Injustice, Jeffrey Havard, Mississippi, Mississippi judicial system, prosecutor misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, prosecutors, shaken baby syndrome, Steven Hayne, USA injustice, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment