Delays in DNA Testing

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Justice for Willie

As long ago as August 2016, it seems that Willie Manning and the State were “attempting to reach an agreement on how to proceed with developing a DNA profile from hairs that were used at Mr. Manning’s trial.”

A new Mississippi Supreme Court letter suggests that agreement has been difficult to reach:
“The previous status update had advised that the type of DNA testing had been worked out, but the specific hairs to be analyzed had not been agreed upon.”

The hair testimony given by an FBI agent at Willie’s trial was afforded great significance by the prosecution. It became important again when the FBI admitted that the testimony had been flawed.

Perhaps it is the very significance of the hair evidence that now makes agreement more difficult.

We trust that Willie remains strong, despite the delays. We trust he will not have to wait long for good news.

Posted in capital punishmant, criminal justice, death penalty, DNA testing, Fly Manning, forensic testimony, hair testimony, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Significance of Absent Witnesses

Posted on March 18, 2017 by Justice for Willie

In the early hours of the December 11, 1992, two Mississippi State University students were murdered. Willie Manning said he was at the 2500 Club that night. As the prosecutor himself pointed out, if Willie was at that club, he “could not possibly have committed this crime. . . .”

Clearly it was of critical importance to Willie’s defense that witnesses should corroborate Willie’s alibi at his trial. Indeed, several people testified that they had seen Willie at the club: Gene Rice, King Hall, Landon Clayborne, Mario Hall and Keith Higgins all said they had seen Willie there.

The state agreed that Willie was at the 2500 Club early in the evening, but surmised that he left the club early and then made his way to the crime scene. Even this hypothesis is hard to reconcile with the facts;* but if Willie had produced credible witnesses to testify that he was at the club later, he would have dealt the state’s theory a powerful blow.

Such witnesses existed, but Willie’s defense failed to locate them. So it was only during post-conviction investigations that Sherron Armstead Mitchell, Doug Miller and Troylin Jones signed affidavits to confirm that they saw Willie at the 2500 Club late on the night of the murders. Troylin Jones saw him at the club at midnight or a little later; Doug Miller last saw him there after midnight, at around 12.15 or 12.20; and Sherron Armstead Mitchell remembered that Willie was still at the club when she left it at almost 1.00 a.m. Mitchell had good reason to remember the time, as she knew her husband would be mad at her for being out so late.

It was between approximately 12:50 and 1:00 a.m. when the two murdered students were last seen, leaving a fraternity house together. The prosecution claimed that when they left, they interrupted Willie stealing items from a car parked outside this house. At the very same time, however, Mitchell was leaving the 2500 Club, while Willie remained in the club.

If the defense had not been deficient in calling Mitchell (and Jones and Miller) to present this significant evidence to the jurors, it seems reasonable to suppose that Willie could have been found innocent.

Willie deserves a new trial.

* “The prosecution had no evidence that Manning had a car that night or that anyone had given him a ride to campus. Thus, according to the prosecution, after spending several hours at the club drinking, Manning walked to the other side of town on a chilly night, broke into a car, abducted two students who caught him, drove off with them in a two-seat car, shot them, drove her blood-streaked car to an apartment complex, and walked the ten or so miles home laden with stolen goods. All of this for a mere leather jacket, CD player with a cracked lid, a class ring that could easily be traced to the murder victim, and a handful of coins?”
Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Page 73 (Page 81 0f PDF). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015. 
Information for this post was taken from:
Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Pages 70 – 75 (pages 78 – 83 of PDF). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.
and
Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, Motion for Leave to File Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief including DNA Testing and other Forensic Analysis, filed March 22, 2013. Pages 24 – 26. Print.
Posted in criminal justice, defense attorneys, Fly Manning, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning, witness testimony, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

What we are doing is wrong

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Justice for Willie

Of all the execution methods being considered in the Mississippi senate last week, it was the firing squad that was rejected; nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution are still being considered. 

Discounting the firing squad is understandable, as Radley Balko explains:
“We recoil at methods such as the guillotine, hanging and the firing squad as barbaric anachronisms of a different era, when crowds gathered to witness and revel in the event.”

Bryan Stevenson highlights a similar disquiet at having to protect marksmen:
“The firing squad – they go out of their way that not all the guns have real bullets, so that the marksmen can walk away thinking, I didn’t do it. But there’s still this dead body on the ground. If we feel the need to actually protect the moral misgivings of the people participating, then there is no greater evidence of what we are doing is wrong.”

From the point of view of the person being executed, however, the firing squad appears to be a less cruel option than the alternatives, as US Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor pointed out last month in a significant dissent to a petition from Alabama:
“[T]he available evidence suggests that a competently performed shooting may cause nearly instant death. In addition to being near instant, death by shooting may also be comparatively painless. And historically, the firing squad has yielded significantly fewer botched executions.”* 

She adds that, in contrast,
‘Science and experience are now revealing that, at least with respect to midazolam-centered protocols, prisoners executed by lethal injection are suffering horrifying deaths beneath a “medically sterile aura of peace.”’**

It seems, then, that Mississippi’s greatest concern is not to avert “cruel and unusual punishment”, but to prevent public opposition to executions. To paraphrase Bryan Stevenson,
“If we feel the need to actually protect the moral misgivings of the public, then there is no greater evidence of what we are doing is wrong.”

*Thomas D. Arthur v. Jefferson S Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al, On Petition for Writ of Certiori to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, decided February 21, 2017, Sotomayor, J., dissenting (page 41 of the Supreme Court of the United States’ Order List 580 U.S., Tuesday, February 21, 2017) 
** Thomas D. Arthur v. Jefferson S Dunn, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al, On Petition for Writ of Certiori to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, decided February 21, 2017, Sotomayor, J., dissenting (page 39 of the Supreme Court of the United States’ Order List 580 U.S., Tuesday, February 21, 2017)
Posted in capital punishment, death penalty, executions, firing squad, human rights abuse, lethal injections, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Repressive Social and Racial Control

Posted on February 15, 2017 by Justice for Willie

Two years ago the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned the two murder convictions in Willie Manning’s second case, saying:
“[T]he State violated his due-process rights when it failed to provide favorable, material evidence, upon request.”
Willie was fortunate.  If exculpatory police canvass notes had not been withheld at his trial (and later produced as evidence of this), he could have been executed on the basis of a witness’s false, coerced, recanted testimony.

Willie’s experience serves to remind us of one argument against the death penalty: innocent people can be executed only too easily. Writing in the student magazine of Mississippi State University, The Reflector, Holly Travis refers to Willie’s exoneration and the danger of executing innocents. She also outlines additional reasons to end capital punishment: it is extremely costly; it does not deter crime; and it is racially biased.

For many Mississippi lawmakers, such reasons are not persuasive. Earlier this month they advanced a plan to add nitrogen hypoxia, firing squad and electrocution as possible execution methods, if their preferred method of lethal injection drugs is blocked in court. Their bill, House Bill 638, met opposition but passed the house, and will be debated in the senate.

But even if the senate clears the bill, the law will intervene. Attorney Jim Craig has promised legal challenges for each proposed method.

His assurance is welcome. Opposing the death penalty is crucial in a free society; writing in The Nation, Jen Marlowe sums up why:

“When we grant states the right to kill its citizens, we are accepting all forms of state-sanctioned violence. Police killings, mass incarceration, surveillance, immigration raids, stop and frisk, and other methods of repressive social and racial control are part of the same destructive system in which capital punishment is the sharpest edge.”

We wish Jim Craig success.

 

Posted in African American, capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, executions, Mississippi, racial control, social control, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Incarcerated by Fellow Citizens

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Justice for Willie

Those on death row suffer unimaginable torture; the inmates who have been wrongly convicted do so even more. Like kidnap victims, those with wrongful convictions have been seized and held against their will; but, unlike kidnap victims, they are not viewed sympathetically by their local community. Indeed, it is their fellow citizens who have wrongly declared them guilty, and subjected them to incarceration and a sentence of death. And for many this must be the hardest to bear.*

Willie Manning claims he was wrongly convicted by citizens in Mississippi; there is extensive evidence to support his claim. His suffering would be understood by two exonerated victims of wrongful death penalty convictions, Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle. Sunny was convicted in Florida, Peter in Ireland.**

Sunny describes how she coped with her wrongful conviction:

“Hopelessness just didn’t appeal to me … they can keep me here, but what goes on within the confines of these walls is mine to create. They cannot imprison my soul!”

Sunny used yoga and meditation to help her maintain a positive mindset on death row, even when her husband was executed, and even after her parents were killed in a plane crash.

For Peter, the challenge was different: he was understandably angry about his wrongful conviction, and needed to calm himself in order to read law and contest his conviction. He, too, found that yoga and meditation helped him.

Sunny and Peter now run a center for victims of wrongful conviction from all over the world. Many of these guests suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); not surprisingly, they are shown the basics of yoga and meditation. The tranquil setting of Sunny and Peter’s house is also beneficial: silence helps PTSD sufferers regain a sense of being safe in the world, and in control of their lives.***

Silence must seem an unimaginable luxury to Willie Manning, forced as he is to listen to the endless cacophony of Mississippi’s death row. But perhaps even there he can learn from Sunny and Peter’s experience. We hope he can. He deserves to find peace.

* Professor Gordon Turnbull, consultant psychiatrist at the University of Chester, UK, speaking on the BBC program, Stories in Sound: Exonerated, at 16:00
**Ireland had the death penalty until 1990 (see here.)
*** Professor Gordon Turnbull, consultant psychiatrist at the University of Chester, UK, speaking on the BBC program, Stories in Sound: Exonerated, at 09:55
Posted in capital punishment, death penalty, Mississippi, post traumatic stress disorder, USA, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Status Update

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Justice for Willie

A Mississippi Supreme Court letter last month confirmed that Willie Manning’s lawyers were trying to proceed with DNA testing on hair from his remaining case. The December letter requests a status update:

“The last status update in the above case, as of August 5, 2016, advised that Mr. Manning and the State were attempting to reach an agreement on how to proceed with developing a DNA profile from hairs that were used at Mr. Manning’s trial. Please provide a status update on whether an agreement was reached, the results of the agreement and the present status of DNA testing.”

The information is scant, but we can be reassured that there is still movement in Willie’s case. And, for now, we must be happy with that.

Posted in DNA testing, Fly Manning, forensic testing, hair testimony, Mississippi Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Mississippi, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Good Start to 2017

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Justice for Willie

On death row any good news can raise the spirits. As 2017 begins, Willie Manning must be happy to know that a fellow inmate, Charles Crawford, has been allowed to challenge Mississippi’s plan to use compounded drugs, specifically midazolam, for his execution. 

Crawford’s gain was narrowly won: the Mississippi Supreme Court was split 5:4 on the issue last month. But the decision now helps to remove any threat of imminent execution for all the inmates:
‘University of Mississippi law professor Tucker Carrington said no executions are likely in the state until Crawford’s case is resolved. “Until some kind of hearing, somewhere, in some court, I don’t see executions going forward using this drug,” Carrington said.’

We wish Willie a Happy New Year. We trust that 2017 will also bring him good news about his case. He deserves no less.

Posted in capital punishmant, Charles Crawford, criminal justice, death penalty, Death Row, lethal injection drugs, midazolam, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Less fortunate than ourselves

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Justice for Willie

It is ten years since Clive Stafford Smith alerted the world to Willie Manning’s appalling plight. Stafford Smith’s article began:
“It is a platitude to suggest that as the Christmas season approaches we should consider those less fortunate than ourselves, but if we did Willie would certainly qualify.”

Since then, Willie’s cases have progressed well: his second case has concluded with his exoneration; and for his first case he has won the right to have DNA and fingerprint testing.

On the other hand, Willie now knows the trauma of having come very close to execution. And he knows that a court decision can dash hopes: it was an unexpected court decision that dashed his hopes of imminent release ten years ago.

For 23 hours each day Willie is alone in his cell. The shouts and screams of mentally ill inmates echo round the corridors, at any time of the night and day, making it hard to concentrate or to sleep. Food portions are often inadequate. And Willie has been on death row for 22 years, despite his claims of innocence and the flimsiest of evidence against him.

Clive Stafford Smith’s words ring true now, as then. We should remember Willie at this time of the year.

We wish Willie a peaceful holiday season.

Posted in capital punishment, criminal justice, death penalty, Death Row, death row mental health, death row solitary confinement, Fly Manning, human rights abuse, Injustice, innocence, Mississippi, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Travesty of Justice

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Justice for Willie

22 years ago, the conviction of Willie Manning for the murder of two students caused anger in the local community, who believed racism had influenced the verdict. On November 19, 1994, the Oktibbeha County NAACP sponsored a protest march* to the Oktibbeha County Courthouse, where Willie’s supporters displayed a banner proclaiming, “Innocent until Proven Guilty”.

Representatives of civil rights and religious groups spoke at the Courthouse. Oktibbeha County NAACP Vice President, Douglas Conner, expressed the outrage felt by those who had attended Willie’s trial:

 “It was a travesty of justice…. [The evidence was] circumstantial, shaky, confusing, unbelievable and poorly rehearsed. Circuit Judge Lee Howard said the prosecution’s job was to prove [Willie] was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I submit there was plenty of reasonable doubt… We don’t think the right person was convicted. We still think the killer is at large.”

Conner pointed out that Willie had been on a list of 22 black suspects that the police believed were capable of the crime. No white suspects were on that list.

Conner said that white skin had been found under Tiffany Miller’s fingernails [but it is not known what led Connor to make this statement, as there is no record of white skin in the evidence].

Clearly those who attended the trial felt there were huge doubts about the safety of Willie’s conviction. Twenty-two years later those doubts remain.

*You can read a report about the protest march and rally here. The report is taken from The Reflector (the Student Newspaper of Mississippi State University) for November 22, 1994. The text boxes filled in blue have been added for the sake of clarity.
Posted in African American, capital punishmant, criminal justice, death penalty, Injustice, innocence, Mississippi, NAACP, Oktibbeha County, racism, USA, Willie Jerome Manning, Willie Manning, wrongful convictions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

President Trump

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Justice for Willie

President Obama has misgivings about the application of the death penalty; President Trump will have no such qualms.

In 1989 Trump funded full page ads in four New York newspapers, calling for the return of the death penalty. The ads referred obliquely to a Central Park rape case, in which 5 black and Latino teenagers were accused of assaulting and raping a white woman. The rhetoric helped to fuel a lynch mob mentality about the case. 

Trump justified his extra-judicial methods with the disturbing retort,
“Maybe hate is what we need.”

The 5 young teenagers had been interrogated over many hours without food, drink or sleep, with no lawyers and often no parents present; they were terrified. Naively believing they would be allowed home if they submitted, four gave way to the pressure: they said they had been at the crime scene, but blamed others for the rape.

The four statements were inconsistent and lacked credibility, but were enough to convict them. The “Central Park Five” were sentenced to between 8 and 13 years in prison.

In 2002 a serial rapist confessed to the crime, and DNA evidence confirmed his guilt. The sentences of the five young men were vacated.

As recently as last month, Trump reiterated his belief in the men’s guilt, refusing to credit the evidence to the contrary.

One of the men, Kevin Richardson, commented:
“It seems that this man is for some strange reason obsessed with sex and rape and black and Latino men… I would say this obsession of his is one of the strangest things I have ever heard of, except we know that it’s not exactly rare, that it’s been used to whip up lynch mobs and pass laws and take people’s lives at the end of a rope in this country before.”

Willie Manning must be only too aware of this obsession: he has been vilified time and time again in the local media.

Trump will take his attitudes to the presidency, affecting his choice of Supreme Court justice – or justices – and possibly relaxing the stance of the FDA towards imported lethal injection drugs. The President-elect has advocated the torture of waterboarding, so is unlikely to be troubled by the prospect of torturous, botched executions. Under President Trump, the death penalty, riddled as it is with racism and inconsistency, could see a resurgence. It is a chilling prospect.

 

Posted in capital punishment, Central Park Five, death penalty unconstitutionality, Fly Manning, Mississippi, torture, Trump, USA, Willie Manning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment