The Murder Sheet Podcast: not shocking, but appalling

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Justice for Willie

In a podcast from ‘The Murder Sheet’ (available below), we are introduced to Willie Manning’s legal team to hear their insights into Willie’s cases. It is a sobering experience. We hear not only that incentivized witnesses led to false trial testimony in both of Willie’s cases, but that this lying witness pattern is not uncommon in death penalty cases.

David Voisin believes that “the appearance of jailhouse informants as trial witnesses should constitute a big red flag”. Krissy Nobile agrees that the use of desperate, very incentivized witnesses happens in many, many cases.

In Willie’s ongoing case, false witness testimony was not the only factor that produced his wrongful conviction: the hair and ballistics evidence was fundamentally flawed. Again, we hear that faulty forensics appear in other death penalty cases. David Voisin sums up cases relying on dubious forensics and incentivized witnesses as a “great tragedy”.

We hear also of the racism that is often at play. For instance, in Willie’s cases, as in other cases where the defendant is African American, black jurors were removed by the prosecutor with flimsy excuses. Overlaid with racism, and underpinned by a shortage of resources for a proper defense investigation, it is no surprise that many death row inmates are eventually exonerated.

Krissy Nobile speaks for the whole team when she says, “It’s not unusual at all [to be exonerated from death row]. It should be shocking how often it happens… These issues that have come up in both of the Manning’s cases come up in other cases. And so while it’s not shocking to see this, it is still appalling to see it.”

And so it is.

Posted in African American, death penalty, flawed forensics, incentivized witnesses, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A white man yelling, followed by gun shots

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Justice for Willie

Students Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler were murdered 31 years ago. We remember with compassion all those who still mourn the two young lives cut brutally short.

Miller lived in a trailer at what is now called University Hills Mobile Home Park in Starkville, Mississippi. New evidence has emerged of a disturbance centred on Miller’s home shortly before the students’ bodies were discovered on a nearby rural road. Although one concerned resident submitted a statement about this to the sheriff’s office, her report was dismissed and no investigation was conducted.

According to this witness, at some time after midnight on December 11 1992, she heard what she thought was a white man yelling from the direction of Miller’s trailer. He yelled something like, “I can’t believe what you did”. There was no female voice. She then heard what sounded like two gunshots, followed by the sound of a vehicle starting up and speeding off.

A second resident, whose back door was only a few feet from Miller’s trailer, recalls the same incident between midnight and about 1 a.m. He remembers that he was in bed and thinks he may have been woken by the sound of gunshots. Coming from the direction of Miller’s trailer, he heard what sounded like a white man yelling, “That ain’t right. You know this mother fucking shit ain’t right.” He heard no other voices, but then heard a car door shutting and the car driving away.

If the police had followed up the first witness’s statement by questioning other residents, they would have uncovered the corroborative evidence given by the second witness. They might have spoken to yet more witnesses who heard or saw something relevant. The first witness was confident that she could recognize the sound of gunshot; had she been taken seriously, police might have searched for bullets or other evidence at the scene.

Instead, the police investigation focused on the sheriff’s unlikely theory that the students were murdered to avoid arrest during minor theft from an unlocked car.

The failure of police to investigate the incident at Miller’s home may have seriously impacted the quest to achieve real justice for Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler.

If you have relevant information about this potentially significant incident, or any other information that could be relevant to Willie Manning’s case, please contact Willie’s attorney.

We wish Willie Manning a peaceful 2024.

Posted in Fly Manning, miscarriages of justice, Mississippi, police, USA, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Manning never told me that he killed anyone.”

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Justice for Willie

Ten years ago, Willie Manning came within an hour of execution, an experience that can only be described as terrifyingly traumatic.

Now prosecutors are once more seeking Willie’s execution. Inevitably, this must revive harrowing memories for him of the day in May 2013 when Mississippi nearly killed him, despite his unswerving declaration of innocence.

Willie’s innocence claim has recently become even stronger, with his filing of significant new evidence. Strikingly, Earl Jordan, a key witness, has now retracted his trial testimony:
“My trial testimony was not true. My statements to the sheriff about Manning’s confession were also not true. Manning never told me that he killed anyone.”
Jordan refers to the sheriff’s “way of making it clear that he would help me out if I helped him with Manning”. Jordan did, indeed, receive favorable treatment and reward money after his false testimony, despite his denial at Willie’s trial that he had any kind of deal with the prosecutor.
Jordan continues that he was afraid to swear an affidavit before:
“I was afraid to tell the truth. But Dolph Bryan is no longer the sheriff. I am telling the truth now.”

Jordan was not the only witness to have lied at Willie’s trial. Frank Parker’s testimony, that he overheard Willie confessing to his cellmate, Henry Richardson (“Miami”), has been refuted by Richardson. Richardson states that he told law enforcement in 1993 that Willie “never talked to me about any crime, why he was in jail, or a gun”.

Another witness, Paula Hathorn, has changed her trial testimony that she did not see Willie for several days after the student murders. In fact, she remembers seeing him soon afterwards. If she had told the truth at the trial, she could have corroborated defense testimony that Willie was at home the morning after the shootings.

On top of these compelling witness statements, firearms expert William Tobin has updated and strengthened his 2013 ballistics report, emphasizing more than ever that the firearms examiner at Willie’s trial should not have expressed an opinion about which gun fired a specific bullet.

Prosecutors have until December 29 to respond to all this new evidence. We hope that Willie can forget about the threat of execution, knowing that he has presented a good deal of very sound evidence. And that this evidence confirms his innocence.

Happy Holidays, Willie!

Posted in false testimony, firearms, Mississippi, new evidence, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Birthday with Greater Freedom

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Justice for Willie

Today is Willie Manning’s 55th birthday. We wish him a happy and peaceful day.

This birthday will be Willie’s first one spent under a new regime of greater freedom: since March, Willie has been allowed to go outside his cell without an escort during the day. He has even been able to play a little basketball and football with some of the other prisoners, with his unaccustomed muscles aching at first! He can also walk freely in the yard outside, and can sit in the shade and watch the birds. Here he can sometimes find peace.

As well as having greater freedom to move around, Willie has benefitted from improvements in the provision of medical treatment: he can access a doctor or dentist more easily than before.

These welcome improvements in conditions have occurred following the terrible period of early 2020: after violence in other parts of the prison death row was locked down, with toilets malfunctioning and access to food and water restricted.

During that time, lawsuits were filed by rappers Jay-Z and Yo Gotti on behalf of prisoners at Parchman (Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman). Since then, the Mississippi Department of Corrections has been obliged to provide regular updates on the improvements that it is making at the prison. The lawsuits were dropped earlier this year, in recognition of these improvements.

It is reassuring to know that the rappers’ legal team continues to monitor the situation. As Yo Gotti remarked:
“The Mississippi Department of Corrections has neglected these torturous living conditions for decades, so we will continue to hold them accountable and ensure they commit to creating long-lasting change that safely protects their incarcerated population.”

We hope that Willie is reassured by this. And we sincerely hope he enjoys his birthday.

Posted in criminal justice, Death Row, Fly Manning, Mississippi, Mississippi State Penitentiary, prison conditions, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Execution Protocols: without Guidance or Restrictions

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Justice for Willie

Today it is exactly ten years since Willie Manning came very close to being executed. Five years ago we remembered that day through a series of quotations; those words still have the power to invoke the emotions that we felt on May 7, 2013.

After Willie’s brush with death, executions in Mississippi were paused to allow litigation about the state’s lethal injection protocol to proceed. Sadly, that pause has now ended: there have been two executions within the last 18 months. David Cox was killed in November, 2021, and Thomas Loden in December, 2022. Both executions relied on lethal injections of midazolam (which is controversial because it is a sedative rather than an anesthetic); vecuronium bromide, a paralytic; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Loden was one of several inmates challenging the state’s use of midazolam and another drug, compounded pentobarbital, in its lethal injection protocol. However, last year Mississippi gave to its Department of Corrections Commissioner and two deputy commissioners unprecedented authority to choose an execution method from: lethal injection, gas chamber, electrocution or firing squad. In allowing Loden’s execution, District Court Judge Wingate pointed out that Mississippi would otherwise simply have chosen another of its now-permitted execution methods.

Willie may have escaped execution ten years ago, but in the mean time Mississippi has increasingly abandoned any pretence of transparency or decency. It does not disclose how it procures its drugs for executions; it no longer requires an anesthetic to be used as part of a lethal injection protocol; and it does not specify how Department of Corrections’ officials should decide what execution method to select. As Ngozi Ndulue, deputy director of the Death Penalty Information Center comments,
“This statute throws it all into the hands of the Mississippi Department of Corrections without guidance and restrictions.”

Fortunately, on death row conditions have recently improved. Willie can go outside more, where watching the birds gives him pleasure. We trust he can focus on this, and leave others to fight the disgrace that is the Mississippi death penalty.

Posted in capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, executions, lethal injections, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thirty Years On

Posted on December 11, 2022 by Justice for Willie

Today, December 11, 2022, marks 30 years since the savage murders of two Mississippi State University students in Starkville, Mississippi. Willie Manning remembers feeling shocked and saddened when he found out about those murders from the television news later that day.

As time went on, Willie became aware that two suspects had been targeted, and then dropped by the police. When the police turned their attention to him, Willie assumed they would quickly lose interest in him, too, once they realized he had nothing to do with the murders. After all, he knew that no physical evidence linked him to the crime, and witnesses could confirm that he was at the 2500 Club on the other side of town when the students were seen leaving the fraternity house for the last time.

But despite the absence of evidence, Willie Manning was dismayed to find himself being convicted and sentenced to death for each murder. In 2014, filmmaker Joe Berlinger commented on this discrepancy: “Trials are often not about seeking the truth, but about who presents the best narrative.”

With the DNA testing phase now concluded for Willie, it is time to reflect again on the crime that took two young lives 30 years ago. Were any clues overlooked at that time? Were any more potential witnesses omitted from police questioning? Is there anything else that could add to Willie’s understanding of what happened to Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler that night? if you do have information. please contact the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, Mississippi.

This week will be very challenging for everyone on Mississippi’s death row: an execution is planned for Wednesday. We hope that Willie can focus on the support that he has from his attorneys, family and friends. And we wish him a peaceful holiday season.

Posted in capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Jon Steckler, Mississippi, Tiffany Miller, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A  Disappointing Ruling

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Justice for Willie

The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied Willie Manning the opportunity to pursue appropriate DNA testing of hairs found in Tiffany Miller’s car.[i]

Willie had asked for specialist testing after screening at Bode Technology lab failed to produce usable data from the hairs.[ii] Bode lab advised that a different, specialist lab might well locate mitochondrial DNA within these old, fragmented samples; Bode recommended MitoTyping Technologies for the purpose. The court rejected the likelihood of additional results being obtained by the specialist lab.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruling upholds a previous circuit court decision[iii] that included the strange announcement that the hairs from Miller’s car were irrelevant to the outcome of Willie’s case – despite the hairs having been admitted as state evidence at his trial. (As Mississippi Supreme Court Justice King states in his dissent, “some of the hair samples were directly used to convict Manning”.)

The state Supreme Court also dismisses Willie’s assertion that DNA evidence might lead to the identification of a perpetrator; but Justice King disagrees (“DNA testing could potentially lead to the true perpetrator of the crime”).

Justice King also suggests that the additional 3-4 months required for specialist DNA testing is trivial compared with the almost 20 years that elapsed before the court granted Willie his request to test the evidence.

This court ruling is limited to hairs found in Miller’s car; the court notes that other evidence was tested for DNA, and that some DNA data was found. Separately, fingerprints from John Wise’s car were examined by forensic specialist Ron Smith, but no matches were found in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System or Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System databases.

Willie and his attorneys are now conferring about future options. We wish them well.

[i] Decision affirming circuit court’s decision, Supreme Court of Mississippi, June 30, 2022. (Justice Kitchens joins Justice King in his dissent, which starts on page 43.)

Decision affirming circuit court’s decisionDownload

[ii] Brief of Appellant, filed in the Supreme Court of Mississippi, April 19, 2021.

Brief of AppellantDownload

[iii] Order, Circuit Court of Oktibbeha County, Mississippi in Vacation 2020. April 28, 2020.

OrderDownload
Posted in capital punishment, death penalty, DNA testing, Supreme Court of Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hope for the Future

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Justice for Willie

Today, June 12, 2022 is Willie Manning’s 54th birthday. We wish him a very happy birthday.

Willie is upbeat at the moment. He is optimistic about how his remaining case is going, as the DNA testing that he was granted 9 years ago finally draws to a close.

Things have also improved somewhat at the prison where he is incarcerated, Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. It is now less difficult for death row inmates to see a doctor when they are sick.

However, improvements to the prison are still needed, as the Justice Department recently concluded. Its report, published in April, found that “unsanitary living conditions and major staffing shortages at Parchman” contributed to a spate of violence and suicides 2 years ago in Unit 29, where death row is housed. The rapper Yo Gotti, who was instrumental in bringing the lawsuit that led to the federal investigation, surely speaks for us all:
“My heart goes out to the incarcerated men who have suffered without access to clean water, food and healthcare and the families that tragically lost loved ones in the process.”

Despite the harshness of this environment, Willie remains hopeful; and hope allows survival. We are very glad of that.

Posted in Death Row, Mississippi, Mississippi State Penitentiary, prison conditions, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Powerless to Help

Posted on November 1, 2021 by Justice for Willie

A few cells away from Willie Manning sits David Cox, who is scheduled to be killed on November 17.

At Cox’s trial his lawyers failed to adequately communicate to the jury the impact of the extensive abuse that he suffered as a child: as well as poverty and neglect, he experienced parental abandonment and chronic exposure to pornography, and he witnessed his father sexually abusing his sister. Unsurprisingly, he turned to addictive substances, including methamphetamine, which damaged his brain. The consequence, according to a forensic psychologist, is that Cox’s rage, violence and impulse control problems are driven by brain dysfunction, and not by choice or character.

The harsh environment of Mississippi’s death row has been far from ideal for treating Cox’s mental disorder.

Cox states that he no longer wants assistance from his lawyers; they believe he is not mentally competent to make this judgment. A judge will soon decide if they can continue to appeal.

There have been no executions in Mississippi since Willie experienced the trauma of coming perilously close to execution in 2013. Inevitably, the looming execution date will bring back memories of that terrible time: the next few weeks will be far harder even than usual for him.

This period will also be traumatic for Cox’s lawyers, and for staff at the prison. It could even impact Cox’s jurors. It will do nothing to make the public safer.

The scheduling of Cox’s killing comes despite an ongoing lawsuit about Mississippi’s lethal injection protocol, and lack of transparency about the origins of the drugs that Mississippi has procured.

For Willie, Cox* is a living, breathing man that he sees every day; Willie is powerless to help him. That is very difficult to live with. Please think of them both.

*You can sign a petition on behalf of David Cox here.

Posted in brain dysfunction, capital punishment, criminal justice, David Cox,, death penalty, Mississippi, trauma, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Circuit Court Abused its Discretion

Posted on June 12, 2021 by Justice for Willie

Today, Saturday, June 12 is Willie Manning’s 53rd birthday: we wish him a happy birthday. We trust that recent developments in his case help him to spend the day peacefully: his arguments for further DNA testing are strong.

In April, Willie filed a brief for the Mississippi Supreme Court, appealing the decision of the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court to deny additional forensic testing of seven hair fragments vacuumed from Tiffany Miller’s car.*

The Bode Technology lab, where the previous tests were conducted, recommended transferring the fragments to the MitoTyping Technologies lab for additional testing, because the latter has much greater success than Bode at extracting mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from old, degraded samples. Willie explains that the transfer of the fragments to MitoTyping thus meets the legal requirement for “a reasonable likelihood of more probative results” [Miss Code Ann § 99-39-5 (1) (f)].

Willie also highlights the Circuit Court’s statement, “The vacuum sweeping could have come from any source from the time the car was manufactured until the time the samples were obtained”, and testing it is “irrelevant to the issue of guilt”. As Willie notes:
“If the Circuit Court is correct in opining that the hairs are irrelevant, then it was error to admit them and the expert’s testimony [into the trial], in which case there is an additional reason to grant Manning a new trial”.

As the hairs were admitted into Willie’s trial and were used against him, further mtDNA testing should be granted. As Willie concludes,
“[T]he Circuit Court clearly erred and abused its discretion in refusing to allow the additional testing of seven hairs by MitoTyping Technologies”.

We trust the Mississippi Supreme Court will agree. We wish Willie the strength and patience to await its decision.

*The State of Mississippi Judiciary website has been undergoing planned scheduled maintenance for several months, so Willie’s filing is not yet visible there. We will provide a link to it when this becomes available.

Posted in capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Fly Manning, Mississippi, Mississippi Supreme Court, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment