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Thread: Willie Williams Palmer - Georgia

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    Willie Williams Palmer - Georgia




    Summary of Offense:

    Willie Williams Palmer was found guilty of two counts of malice murder and two counts of felony murder in the September 10, 1995 shooting deaths of his wife, Brenda Jenkins Palmer, and his stepdaughter, Christine Jenkins.

    Palmer was first sentenced to death in November 1997 and most recently re-sentenced to death in August 2007.

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    Death row inmate seeks new trial

    A convicted murderer sitting on death row for killing his wife and stepdaughter is asking for a fourth trial. Willie Palmer has filed a motion for a new trial and is scheduled to appear in Burke County Superior Court in May before Judge James G. Blanchard Jr.

    http://www.thetruecitizen.com/news/2...new_trial.html
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    Burke County death row inmate Willie Palmer back in court Monday

    Nearly 18 years have passed since a mother and daughter were shot to death in a tiny house in Burke County. On Monday, the man convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the slayings is back in court.

    Defense attorney Randolph Frails filed the latest motion for a new trial for Willie Palmer, who had three death penalty trials and wound up on Georgia’s death row in Jackson. Frails is handling Palmer’s defense alone because his former co-counsel is gravely ill.

    Palmer, now 60, stood trial on capital murder charges for the Sept. 10, 1995, killings of Brenda Jenkins Palmer, 31, and Christine Jenkins, 15, in Vidette, Ga., where witnesses testified that Palmer’s estranged wife was trying to hide.

    Palmer’s most recent trial in Burke County Superior Court ended in August 2007. On Monday, the first step in the appeals process begins with Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. hearing Palmer’s motion for a new trial.

    Blanchard inherited the case from Senior Judge William M. Fleming Jr., who declared a mistrial in Palmer’s first trial in Burke County and granted a motion to move the second trial to Washington County, where Palmer was sentenced to death in November 1997.

    That conviction and sentence were reversed on appeal 10 years later when it was revealed that the attorneys were never told that a crucial prosecution witness had been paid for his testimony.

    Fleming also presided over Palmer’s third trial in Burke County in August 2007.

    Among the defense’s grounds for a new trial is the contention that Fleming made improper comments in front of the jury about a doctor whose testimony was the cornerstone of defense attempts to persuade jurors to find Palmer intellectually impaired. Such a finding would have made him ineligible for a death sentence.

    When the doctor’s testimony ended, Fleming commented, “What your testimony is, it doesn’t help us one way or the other?” When the witness responded that his testimony was useless, Fleming remarked: “That’s what I thought.”

    Making remarks about defense witnesses earned Fleming a legal smack from the Georgia Supreme Court when it reversed a 2000 Augusta aggravated assault conviction.

    “The trial judge crossed the line when he questioned defendant’s experts about post-traumatic stress syndrome and attempted suicide,” the high court stated. “In each of those instances, the trial judge effectively disparage defendant’s psychiatric defense and intimated that he gave it no credence whatsoever.”

    It was a precedent-setting ruling because the Supreme Court had previously ruled such behavior wasn’t a reversible error unless the defense attorney objected at trial. In the 2000 case, the justices found the error was so serious that it demanded a reversal.

    http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/cr...k-court-monday
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    Ga. man on death row asking for new trial

    A man on death row is asking for a new trial and says he is not happy with his attorney.

    Judge James Blanchard instructed that Willie Palmer be given new counsel and postponed any action until they can hold another hearing on March 11.

    Palmer was convicted of the murders of his wife and stepdaughter in Burke County back in 1995.

    Palmer has been tried twice before for the crime. His first trial ended in a mistrial, while he was convicted and sentenced to die during the second one. The Georgia Supreme Court threw out the death sentence.

    http://www.wrdw.com/news/crimeteam12...185911252.html
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    Defense wants new judge to hear motion in 22-year-old Burke County death penalty case

    By Sandy Hodson
    The Augusta Chronicle

    In a death penalty case that is 22 years old, a judge from outside the Augusta Judicial Circuit will likely be asked to decide if the judge who inherited the 1995 case against Willie Palmer should continue to consider his appeal.

    Palmer has been in custody since his arrest for the Sept. 10, 1995, murders of his estranged wife and stepdaughter, Brenda Jenkins, 31, and Christine Jenkins, 15, who died in a two-room shack in Vidette, Ga., where, according to witnesses, they were attempting to hide from Palmer.

    Palmer’s case has lingered for so long because of multiple trials. His first trial in Burke County Superior Court in 1997 was cut short when the judge declared a mistrial. At a second trial in Washington, Ga., where the case was moved in 1997, Palmer was convicted of murder and other charges and sentenced to death.

    In 2005 Palmer’s conviction was reversed because a key witness whose testimony corroborated the witness who identified Palmer as the killer was a paid informant, a fact that was not revealed to prosecutors in the case.

    Palmer, now 64, stood trial again in 2007 in Burke County with Judge James G. Blanchard Jr. presiding. Blanchard inherited the case from Judge William M. Fleming Jr. Palmer was again convicted and sentenced to die.

    A decade later, Palmer’s case remains in the first step of an appeal – a motion for a new trial. Two years ago, Palmer’s new defense team argued the state had withheld evidence from Palmer’s trial attorneys – that the doctor who previously testified Palmer was not intellectually disabled had changed his mind.

    This month the appellate attorneys filed a motion asking Blanchard to recuse himself if the prosecution intends to contest what Dr. Dave Paterson allegedly told the prosecutors before the start of the 2007 retrial. They cite the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct that requires a judge to recuse himself if his impartiality might reasonable be questioned.

    If there is a factual dispute between the doctor and the prosecutors in 2007, it would put Blanchard in the position of having to judge the credibility of two of his colleagues, both former prosecutors in Palmer’s case – Judge Daniel J. Craig and Judge Ashley Wright.

    Blanchard halted the proceedings in Palmer’s case and referred the recusal motion to Chief Judge Carl C. Brown Jr. Brown said he expects that after studying the issue that he will ask the chief judge of the Judicial District to appoint a judge from outside the Augusta Judicial Circuit to hear the recusal motion.

    The district attorney’s office contends in court documents that there is no dispute because the trial prosecutors never withheld the doctor’s statement from the defense. It was the defense’s job to interview the doctor who was available to the defense before the 2007 trial, the prosecution contends.

    Expert testimony on the topic of mental disability is always subject to revision in the inexact science of intellectual ability, the prosecution contends.

    The issue is important in Palmer’s case because if the jury had found him to be the legal term of mentally retarded, the death penalty could not have been pursued.

    http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/20...h-penalty-case
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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    Death row inmate loses motion for new trial

    By Sandy hodson
    Savannah Now

    A Burke County man sentenced to death in 2007 for the murders of his estranged wife and teen stepdaughter has lost his motion for a new trial.

    In an order signed last week, Willie Palmer’s motion was denied by Judge James G. Blanchard Jr., who inherited the capital murder case from another judge.

    A Burke County Superior Court jury convicted Palmer, 67, of the Sept. 10, 1995, murders of Brenda Jenkins Palmer, 31, and Christine Jenkins, 15. The jury set the punishment at death.

    Palmer was initially tried in 1997, but that case ended in a mistrial. Later that year, Palmer was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury in Sandersville, Ga., where the trial was moved.

    The conviction was reversed on appeal by the Georgia Supreme Court because evidence that a key witness was a paid informant for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was never shared with the defense. The prosecutor also wasn’t told about the witness’ status.

    After several hearings over the past two years, Palmer’s attorneys argued he was entitled to a fourth trial because his defense was put at an unfair disadvantage because his attorneys didn’t know a potential expert witness for the prosecution had changed his opinion as to Palmer’s intellectual disability.

    Before the slayings, Palmer had been jailed for violating a temporary order of protection that his estranged wife obtained based on verbal and physical abuse. He was released nine days before the murders.

    His nephew Frederico Palmer testified that he was with Palmer when he broke into the Vidette house where Brenda Palmer was hiding with her daughters, Christine and the couple’s infant daughter. Brenda and Christine were shot to death. The baby was left alone in the house but unharmed.

    https://www.savannahnow.com/news/201...-for-new-trial
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    After two decades on death row, Burke County man will face life in prison

    Nearly 23 years have passed since Brenda Palmer Jenkins and her 15-year-old daughter, Christine Jenkins, were gunned down in a tiny house in Videtta, Ga. Through the years, the man who pulled the trigger has been tried repeatedly.

    It’s still not over.

    The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday issued an order adopting a consent agreement between the lawyers for 68-year-old Willie Palmer, the Augusta Judicial Circuit’s district attorney’s office and the state’s Attorney General’s office.

    Under the agreement, Palmer, who has spent the majority of the past 23 years on death row, will be tried a fifth time. This time, however, the only issue for a Burke County Superior Court jury is the punishment -- life in prison with the possibility of parole or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    The last time Palmer stood trial in was in 2007. Palmer was again convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the murders of his 31-year-old estranged wife and stepdaughter. His first conviction and death sentence from 1997 was reversed on appeal because a crucial witness was a paid informant for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a fact not revealed to the defense, or the prosecutors.

    In November, Judge James G. Blanchard Jr., who inherited Palmer’s case after Palmer’s trial judge retired, ruled against Palmer’s motion for a new trial. An appeal was filed with the Georgia Supreme Court.

    After the defense brief was filed in the appeal, which lay out the defense’s contention that Palmer’s right to review all the evidence in the case, including evidence that could benefit the defense, was violated, the attorneys on both sides agreed Palmer should have been granted a new trial.

    “This concession was not made lightly, but with the overarching understanding of the state’s ’solemn obligation to seek justice in every case,‴ the consent agreement reads.

    This central defense issue at Palmer’s 2007 trial was that Palmer was intellectually disabled. Under Georgia law, if a jury finds a defendant is intellectually disabled the possibility of a death sentence is off the table.

    The defense had two mental health expert witnesses who would testify Palmer met the legal definition for intellectual disability. The state’s expert witness subpoenaed to testify, state psychologist David Peterson, was expected to give similar testimony as he did before -- that Palmer was not intellectually disabled. But in 2007, Peterson told prosecutors that he had changed his mind after reviewing additional information about Palmer, including the fact that Palmer was deemed eligible for Social Security benefits years earlier because of his intellectual disability.

    Then District Attorney and now Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Craig did not call Peterson as a witness nor tell defense attorneys Michael Garrett and Randolph Frails of Peterson’s revised opinion.

    Although the district attorney’s office took the position during Palmer’s motion for a new trial proceedings that the defense should have discovered Peterson’s change in opinion during the preparation for trial, the consent agreement approved by the Georgia Supreme Court concedes it was a violation of Palmer’s rights.

    https://www.augustachronicle.com/new...life-in-prison
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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