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Thread: Quintez Wren Hodges - Mississippi

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    Quintez Wren Hodges - Mississippi




    Facts of the Crime:

    Hodges was sentenced to death for the July 21, 1999 fatal shooting of Isaac Johnson, 17. Hodges also was sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping Johnson's sister, Cora Johnson, and her baby. Authorities said Hodges was the ex-boyfriend of Cora Johnson and the father of her child. The woman and her daughter were not harmed. Authorities said Isaac Johnson's body was discovered in the bedroom of his mother's home in Caledonia. Johnson died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death sentence tossed in '99 killing----Federal judge says high court denial of appeal unreasonable

    A federal judge has thrown out the death sentence given to Quintez Wren Hodges in 2001 in Lowndes County for capital murder in the slaying of his ex-girlfriend's brother.

    U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills, in a decision released Monday, said Hodges' legal representation "was so lacking" as to render "unreasonable" a later Mississippi Supreme Court decision addressing several factors, including presentation of false evidence and ineffective counsel, during sentencing at his trial.

    Mills says District Attorney Forrest Allgood should have known testimony given at trial by then-Assistant District Attorney Jim Kitchens, now a circuit judge, was false.

    Kitchens testified about circumstances involving an earlier case in which Hodges was charged with burglary, even though Kitchens was not the prosecutor assigned to the case and had no contact with the parties involved, according to court records.

    Mills also found Hodges' attorneys showed the reasonable likelihood "that the jury's verdict might have been affected as a result of the false testimony."

    Mills also cited improper and insufficient instructions to the jury about its choices for Hodges' verdict.

    State prosecutors have 60 days to vacate his death sentence, start new sentencing proceedings or impose a sentence less than death. Mills denied Hodges a hearing on other claims and denied him permission to appeal claims not related to the sentencing. Hodges was sentenced to death for the July 21, 1999, fatal shooting of Isaac Johnson, 17.

    Hodges also was sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping Johnson's sister, Cora Johnson, and her baby. Authorities said Hodges was the ex-boyfriend of Cora Johnson and the father of her child. The woman and her daughter were not harmed.

    Authorities said Isaac Johnson's body was discovered in the bedroom of his mother's home in Caledonia. Johnson died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

    The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Hodges' capital murder conviction and death sentence in 2005, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal the same year.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

    Opinion is here:

    http://nmisscommentor.com/wp-content...-fed-court.pdf

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Mills’ death-case order sets off legal reactions

    Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will appeal a federal order throwing out a Lowndes County death sentence.

    Jan Schaefer, a Hood spokeswoman, said Wednesday that his office will appeal the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills of Oxford threw out Quintez Hodges’ death sentence, citing serious problems with the man’s trial defense and with what Mills called “false testimony” by then-Assistant District Attorney Jim Kitchens during the trial’s sentencing phase.

    Kitchens, now a circuit judge, isn’t commenting publicly, but others are about the ruling that labeled his testimony false.

    Forrest Allgood is district attorney in the 16th District, which includes Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties. Kitchens, who is not the Jim Kitchens on the Mississippi Supreme Court, was Allgood’s assistant before he won a circuit bench seat.

    Mills said in his order that Allgood should have known the testimony was false.

    “Suffice it to say, I’ve never put on evidence I knew to be false,” Allgood said Wednesday.

    Hodges was accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s brother and he was found guilty in 2001.

    Kitchens, who is seeking re-election Nov. 2, declined to speak on the record, although he said he might later.

    Spokesmen for the Mississippi Bar and the Commission on Judicial Performance declined to say if the Mills ruling had been brought to their attention.

    But it should, said Ben Cooper, an assistant professor who teaches ethics at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

    “The Bar and the Commission on Judicial Performance need to look into the situation in this case,” Cooper said.

    Cooper described Kitchens’ testimony “at best, mistaken, and at worst, was intentionally calculated to deceive the jury.”

    Mills’ order said the false testimony about conversations with Hodges, his mother and his victim’s mother increased the jury’s antagonism toward Hodges and probably contributed to the death penalty decision.

    http://nems360.com/pages/full_story/...ry_left_column

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    Kitchens says he made mistake in '01 testimony

    COLUMBUS — Former prosecutor Jim Kitchens tells the Columbus Commercial Dispatch that he made a mistake when he testified in 2001 during the death-penalty sentencing of Quintez Wren Hodges.

    U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills this past Monday ordered a new sentencing hearing for Hodges. In doing so, Mills cited errors in Kitchens' testimony.

    Kitchens is now a circuit judge running for re-election.

    In 2001, Kitchens was an assistant district attorney when he testified at Hodges' sentencing in Lowndes County. He testified about Hodges' conviction in a 1998 burglary case.

    Mills said Kitchens' testimony increased the jury's antagonism toward Hodges and probably contributed to the death penalty decision.

    Hodges was sentenced to death for the July 21, 1999, fatal shooting of Isaac Johnson.

    http://nems360.com/pages/full_story/...es_left_column

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    Panel upholds vacating of death penalty for Hodges

    JACKSON, Miss. -- A federal appeals panel has ruled that because of erroneous jury instructions, Quentin Wren Hodges was denied a fair sentencing hearing when he got the death penalty for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend's brother.

    A three-judge panel for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a decision by U.S. District Judge Michael Mills, who vacated Hodges' death sentence last fall.

    Hodges was convicted in 2001 in Lowndes County.

    The trial judge told jurors that if they failed to unanimously agree on a punishment, he would have to sentence Hodges to life with the possibility of parole. Mills said that was a mistake by the judge, and the appeals panel agreed.

    Mills said Hodges was not entitled to parole but the judge's error likely confused the jury.

    http://www.sunherald.com/2011/07/29/...#ixzz1TWld1Fo9

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Two inmates die at separate Mississippi prisons

    WJTV News

    JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – According to the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC), two inmates in separate prisons have died.

    Quintez Hodges, 40, was pronounced dead Saturday morning at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. Wayne Humphrey, 50, died Sunday evening at Stone County Hospital in Wiggins.

    In each case, MDOC officials said the cause of death is pending an autopsy by a medical examiner who operates independently of MDOC.

    Hodges was sentenced to death for capital murder on September 13, 2001, in Lowndes County.

    https://www.wjtv.com/news/two-inmate...sippi-prisons/
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