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Thread: Jessie Lee Dotson, Jr. - Tennessee Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jessie Dotson to Wed in Prison

    Memphis, TN - Mass-murderer Jessie Dotson, is planning on tying the knot in prison. He met his now fiancé after he was arrested for the Lester Street murders.

    Dotson's fiancé didn't want us to use her name. She says people ask her all the time if she's crazy. She says she's not.

    But, she wouldn't talk about why she wants to marry Dotson or details about their relationship. She says she wears a ring she bought herself and says Dotson will wear one too in prison too. While prison weddings are allowed we found, there are strict regulations.

    During his death row interview Jessie Dotson told us, "I have a fiancé."

    The 36-year old convicted killer says he's planning to get married in August.

    He says his fiancé, a 45-year old Horn Lake, Mississippi woman, started writing him letters, while he was locked up at 201 Poplar after being arrested for the Lester Street murders.

    Dotson says, "we've been together for 3 years now."

    In October, Dotson was convicted of killing 6 people at the Lester Street home, including his brother and 2 young nephews. A jury gave him 6 death penalty sentences.

    Dotson says his fiancé went to the trial just a couple times.

    When asked if his fiancé thought he did it, Dotson said, "Ummm...I can't really speak for her. She could tell me one thing, but think another."

    His fiancé told us over the phone, she loves Jessie Dotson and does not think he's guilty. They've been engaged for 2 years.

    Dotson's mother, Priscilla Shaw, says his fiancé called her once before, "First thing came to my mind is what is wrong with this lady? Is she crazy? How can you see a killer on the news and you want to marry him? Some lady's like jail men, maybe she's one of those. What kind of marriage are you gonna have with a man on death row?"

    In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners have a constitutionally protected right to marry. While unusual, prison weddings are not unheard of.

    Convicted child-killer Damien Echols has been married more than 10 years. His wife, Lori Davis, a Manhattan architect, started writing him after he was arrested for killing three 8-year old West Memphis boys in 1994. The two married at an Arkansas prison chapel in 1999.

    In November, Echols told us keeping a prison marriage alive, on death row, is difficult, "When you are married to someone out there you take it for granted, physical intimacy, coming home to someone your married to, you don't have that in a situation like this. It forces you to grow together psychologically and emotionally. You have to find other means of connecting, bringing together."

    In Tennessee, inmates must get permission from the warden before getting married. There are 2 counseling sessions with both the bride and groom.

    A spokesperson says Dotson's wedding would take place in the visiting area, with "appropriate restraints for his security level."

    At the ceremony there is no cake, no cameras and just 4 pre-approved visitors. The wedding is non-contact, meaning no kiss. Death row inmates are never allowed conjugal visits.
    Dotson says that she is the love of his life.

    Dotson's fiancé wouldn't tell us what she does for a living but says she's not working now because she had surgery. She says she's been married once before.

    Dotson has not been married, but says he gets a 4 to 6 letters a week, mostly from women, some even propose to him in their letters.

    http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news...n-rpt-20110524

  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Memphis mass murder case goes to appellate court

    Lawyers for the man convicted and sentenced to death in the 2008 Lester Street mass murder of men, women and children will travel to Jackson, Tenn., Tuesday to try to convince a panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals that he deserves a new trial.

    Jessie Dotson is on death row in Nashville for the shooting and stabbing of four adults and two children in a gruesome case that attracted national attention. Dotson, 38, received six death sentences, plus 120 years in prison.

    Three other children survived beatings and slashings, including his 9-year-old nephew who told police Dotson his “Uncle Junior” was responsible for the carnage.

    Defense attorneys say statements by the boy, Cecil Dotson Jr., are unreliable and conflicted with physical facts and other accounts he gave of the attack in March of 2008.

    They also contend that the defendant’s confession was not consistent with evidence found at the crime scene.

    “Jessie Dotson told police that he started firing with his own gun which, by all accounts, was a .45-caliber pistol,” defense attorney Marty McAfee said in a court brief. “All of the evidence at the scene indicated that a .380 and a 9mm was used, but not a .45 caliber.

    “Investigators determined that the adults’ bloody bodies were moved after death, but forensic analysis of Jessie Dotson’s clothing and boots revealed no evidence of the victims’ blood.”

    State prosecutors say the evidence taken as a whole clearly indicated that Dotson committed the crimes.

    “There was overwhelming evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” Asst. Atty. Gen. Jeffrey Zentner of Nashville said in court papers. “He named himself twice as the murderer, in addition to being named by two eyewitnesses as the murderer.... There was evidence that the defendant conversed with the victims while killing or attempting to kill them, rebuffing their attempts to tell him they loved him and even explaining why he had to kill them.”

    Dotson told police and his mother he began killing the adults, including his brother, during a heated argument and that he killed the children because they had seen him and could identify him.

    His parole had expired just weeks earlier, after he had served about 14 years in prison for second-degree murder in the 1994 killing of another man in a drug deal.

    The murder victims included his brother, Cecil Dotson, 30, and his live-in girlfriend, Marissa Williams, 27; Hollis Seals, 33, and his girlfriend, Shindri Roberson, 22; Cemario Dotson, 4, and Cecil Dotson II, 2, both sons of Cecil Dotson.

    Three children of Cecil Dotson and Marissa Williams were critically injured, including Cecil Dotson Jr., 9, Cedric Dotson, 3, and Ceniyah Dotson, four months.

    The adults were shot multiple times, while the children were stabbed and slashed multiple times.

    http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...pellate-court/
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  3. #23
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Convictions And Death Sentences For Man Convicted Of Multiple Murders Confirmed

    The Tennessee Supreme Court has unanimously affirmed a jury’s verdict convicting Jessie Dotson of six counts of first degree murder and imposing a death sentence for each of the six convictions. The Court also affirmed Dotson’s convictions of three counts of attempted first degree murder and three consecutive 40-year sentences.

    The murders and assaults occurred in Memphis in the very early morning hours of March 2, 2008, at the Lester St. home of Cecil Dotson, Jr., Dotson’s brother. The murder victims included Cecil Jr., his two-year-old and five-year-old sons, and his fiancée, Marissa Williams, as well as two other adults, Hollis Seals and Shindri Roberson. Three other of Cecil Jr.’s children, ranging in age from nine years to two months, were also assaulted and left for dead in the home by Dotson but managed to survive for more than 24 hours, until emergency personnel arrived late in the afternoon of Mar. 3, 2008.

    All of the adult victims died from multiple gunshot wounds. All of the children were stabbed with knives and beaten with boards, which Dotson found inside the home. Emergency personnel found one of the surviving children, nine-year-old C.J., in a bathtub with a knife blade embedded in his skull. Investigators quickly realized that the crime scene had been staged, with cocaine and marijuana placed on the bodies of two of the adult victims and shell casings collected after the shootings.

    The police initially received information suggesting that the murders were gang-related. As a result, the surviving Dotson family members, including Dotson, were taken into protective custody. On Mar. 7, 2008, C.J. identified his uncle Dotson as the perpetrator of the crimes, and he again identified Dotson as the perpetrator during subsequent interviews and during his trial testimony.

    After his arrest, Dotson admitted his guilt during police questioning and during a conversation with his mother. He told his mother that the shootings happened as he and Cecil Jr. were arguing and that he had assaulted the children because they witnessed the shootings. Proof at trial showed that Jessie Dotson, who had already been convicted of second degree murder and had been released from incarceration shortly before these crimes, did not want to go back to prison after serving fourteen years there.

    During his trial testimony, Dotson recanted his earlier statements and denied any involvement in the crimes. He claimed that he had been in the master bedroom of his brother’s home when he heard others enter and begin shooting. Dotson said that he had hidden beneath the bed for some time and that he had left the home believing no one else had survived. Dotson admitted being a gang member and explained that he did not call the police or tell anyone about the crimes because gang members do not report crimes to the police and also because he feared being blamed with the crime because of his prior criminal record.

    After hearing all the proof, the jury found Dotson guilty of six counts of first degree murder and three counts of attempted first degree murder. At a separate sentencing hearing, the jury found the proof established multiple aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury also found that these aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt and justified imposing a death sentence for each first degree murder conviction. At a later hearing before the trial judge alone, Dotson received three additional 40-year sentences for the attempted first degree murder convictions.

    Dotson appealed, and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his convictions. A state law requires the Supreme Court to review the case as well. The Supreme Court affirmed the jury’s verdict and the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision. The Supreme Court also unanimously found the death sentences proportionate, stating that the murders and assaults Dotson “perpetrated are some of the most horrendous ever committed in Tennessee.”

    Retired Justice William C. Koch, Jr. and Chief Justice Sharon G. Lee filed a separate concurring and dissenting opinion, in which they agreed that Dotson’s sentence is proportionate but reiterated their disagreement with the manner in which the Court conducts proportionality review, which was first expressed in a separate opinion they filed in another Memphis case involving the death penalty, State v. Pruitt.

    To read the majority opinion in State of Tennessee v. Jessie Dotson, authored by Justice Cornelia A. Clark, or the joint separate opinion of Chief Justice Lee and retired Justice Koch, visit the Opinions section of TNCourts.gov.

    http://www.chattanoogan.com/2014/9/3...ences-For.aspx

  4. #24
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Dotson's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Tennessee, Western Division
    Case Nos.: (W2011-00815-SC-DDT-DD)
    Decision Date: September 30, 2014
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  5. #25
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    Anything new on this case?

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  7. #27
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    Appeal denied by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Judgement of the post-conviction court affirmed.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/tenness...cca-r3-pd.html
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  8. #28
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    Oral arguments in Dotson’s cert petition before the Tennessee Supreme Court are scheduled for 4/5/2023.

    https://www.tncourts.gov/node/8669431
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  9. #29
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    Post-conviction relief denied by the TSC 7/7/23.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/tenness...sc-r11-pd.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  10. #30
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    After watching both The First 48 episode on this and After the First 48 that was on the trial, I'm amazed how slow this case is moving. 10 years just to get through direct appeal and state?

    The homicide detectives originally couldn't believe or even comprehend that Dotson killed his family, they though it was a work of a rival gang. It wasn't until the kids identified him did they realize how horrible this case was.

    Only justice that will ever get served in this case is a shanking in the chow line sadly.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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