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Thread: Willie Jerome Manning - Mississippi Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) Office of Communications will hold three press briefings on May 7, 2013, covering the scheduled execution of Willie Jerome Manning. The MDOC Communications Division will also have a designated telephone line established for media organizations only wishing to call the media center and receive updated information.

    Scheduled Press Briefings
    Press briefings will take place at the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) Media Center at Parchman, Miss. for news organization members credentialed to cover the scheduled executions of Willie J. Manning, MDOC #71931. The press briefings are scheduled for 2:00 p.m., 4:45 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The briefings will take place at the MSP Media Center.

    Media Only Phone Number

    The MDOC Office of Communications has established a telephone number for media organizations only for the May 7th scheduled execution. This telephone number is not for publication to the public and will be operational from 10:30a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

    (662) 745-6148
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  2. #22
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Attorney General: Test wouldn't exonerate Manning

    By Jack Elliot, Jr.
    The Associated Press

    JACKSON -- Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says a new round of DNA testing on evidence collected against death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning would not exonerate him in the 1992 deaths of two students.

    Manning, now 44, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state penitentiary at Parchman.

    "Any time there is legitimate, exculpatory evidence, capable of DNA testing, the state is prepared to conduct testing," Hood said in a statement released late Friday.

    "However when the defense waits until the 11th hour to raise such claims, which could not possibly exonerate their client, courts are loathe to be subjected to these types of dilatory defense tactics."

    Manning, who is black, had argued that hair found in one of the victim's cars was not proved to be his. DNA showed that the hair was from a black person, but other blacks had been seen in the car, according to trial testimony.

    Hood said Manning could have had the hair tested at any time but had not.

    The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stop the execution, in a 5-4 decision.

    Manning's lawyers have asked Gov. Phil Bryant for a stay. Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock said Friday that the governor is reviewing the case.

    http://www.cdispatch.com/news/articl...#ixzz2SNc81bcl

  3. #23
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Manning moved to holding cell at Miss. prison

    Attorneys for death row inmate Willie Jerome Manning asked the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday to stop his execution and allow him to seek post-conviction DNA testing of evidence from the investigation into the slayings of two college students.

    Manning and his attorneys also are awaiting a decision from Gov. Phil Bryant on whether Manning will get a reprieve from Tuesday's scheduled execution.

    The Mississippi Supreme Court, in earlier separate identical 5-4 rulings, declined to grant Manning time for the tests and to stop his execution.

    Manning was handed two death sentences for the slayings of Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller, whose bodies were discovered in rural Oktibbeha County in 1992. Each had been shot.

    Prosecutors said Manning was arrested after trying to sell some items belonging to the victims.

    http://www.necn.com/05/06/13/Manning...c117e0531a8354
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  4. #24
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death Row Inmate’s Request for DNA Testing Is Rejected

    The State of Mississippi rejected on Monday a DNA testing request made by a prisoner scheduled to be put to death Tuesday evening.

    Willie J. Manning, convicted in 1994 of murdering two college students, had been repeatedly rebuffed in the courts as he sought to have DNA tests performed on certain crime scene evidence. But the most recent requests came about because of two letters sent by the Department of Justice in recent days to the prosecutor who handled Mr. Manning’s trial.

    The letters concerned the trial testimony of an F.B.I. expert asked to examine “hair fragments” found at the scene of the murders. The expert testified that in this case he could determine only that the hairs had come from an African-American but that hair comparison analysis was capable, given better samples, of matching a hair to an individual.

    Mr. Manning is black; the murder victims were white. The prosecutor cited this testimony several times in his closing arguments.

    In a letter dated Thursday, the Justice Department said the expert’s testimony about the general capability of hair analysis — that it could match a hair to an individual — was erroneous and “exceeded the limits of the science.” Then, in a letter dated Saturday, the department further said such analysis could not “determine” that a hair came from a person of a certain race, as the expert testified at one point, only that the hair “possesses certain traits that are associated with a particular racial group.”

    The F.B.I. offered in both letters to perform DNA testing on the hair fragments.

    Mr. Manning’s lawyers argued that these letters constituted new evidence and thus that the hairs, as well as other evidence collected at the scene including a rape kit and fingernail scrapings, should be submitted for DNA testing before Mr. Manning is put to death.

    In the response denying the requests, the state attorney general, Jim Hood, called the new requests a “red herring,” saying the letters did not “represent new evidence” or repudiate the testimony given by the F.B.I. expert in 1994.

    Mr. Manning’s lawyers were still lobbying the governor for a stay of execution. On Friday, Mr. Manning’s brother and the Mississippi Innocence Project sued to preserve all the physical evidence for DNA testing even if the execution is carried out.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/us...cted.html?_r=0
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  5. #25
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Willie Jerome Manning awaits word on execution

    Willie Jerome Manning awaited word Tuesday on whether the state will execute him later in the day.

    Manning's lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution to allow time for testing of DNA, which they say will clear him of the 1992 slayings of two Mississippi State University students.

    The execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at the state prison in Parchman.

    The Supreme Court, in separate rulings, has declined to grant Manning time for the tests and to stop his execution.

    A spokesman for Gov. Phil Bryant said the governor has not decided whether to block the execution.

    The bodies of Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller were found in rural Oktibbeha County in December 1992. They had been shot to death. Manning was convicted in 1994. Prosecutors said Manning was arrested after he tried to sell some items belonging to the victims.

    In a response Monday to Manning's latest filing, the attorney general's office said the inmate's attorneys have not produced any new information that should stop the execution.

    The FBI has offered to conduct the DNA testing after saying its microscopic analysis of evidence, particularly of hair samples found in Miller's car, contained erroneous statements. Manning's lawyers seized on that statement as key to seeking a stay of execution.

    "This motion is compelled by the extraordinary admissions by the FBI," wrote Manning attorney Robert S. Mink in the brief.

    On Monday, Hood said there is "overwhelming evidence of guilt" unrelated to the hair. He also said Manning's attorneys could have had DNA testing done independently years ago, but Hood said it never came up until March.

    "I don't want anybody out there to think the state of Mississippi wouldn't pay for DNA testing if it would make a difference. In this case it wouldn't," Hood said.

    "It is through no fault of Willie Manning or his counsel that these revelations from the FBI have only just come to light," Mink said in a response filed late Monday. "The false testimony was uncovered as part of a full internal review at the Department of Justice of all cases in which FBI agents have performed forensic hair analysis and subsequently testified in trials."

    Hood said the FBI letters were just the agency detailing in writing the changes in the way testing is done now.

    In its statement, the FBI says its expert should have testified that he only determined that the hair fragments exhibited traits associated with African-Americans, not that it came from an African-American.

    Mink said the statement then given at Manning's trial was false.

    "The FBI's misleading exaggeration of the hair's probative value was just what the prosecution needed ... (it) allowed the prosecutor to make the incorrect statistical argument that the hair increased the odds that Manning was the perpetrator of the crime.

    In the court filing Monday, Hood said "the supposed 'new' evidence does not represent new evidence nor do these letters from DOJ represent, when read in context, a repudiation of the testimony" offered by an FBI agent during the trial.

    Mink said DNA testing has ever been performed on key evidence.

    "To pass on this issue and sanction the execution of Willie Manning, even in light of these revelations, would be counter to fundamental due process, the eight and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution and the Mississippi Constitution. The state clearly relied on the forensic hair analyst's testimony to link Willie Manning to the crime scene and forensic testimony is known to have an impact on juries. Even in a non-capital case, this would be enough to remand the case for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of the hair analysis," Mink wrote.

    In its 5-4 ruling on April 25, the state Supreme Court said there was "conclusive, overwhelming evidence of guilt" presented an Oktibbeha County jury.

    The Supreme Court said the jury heard from Manning's cousin and a prison cellmate that Manning has confessed to the slayings. The court said other witnesses testified that Manning tried to sell them items that were later shown to have belonged to Steckler and Miller.

    Manning's girlfriend testified that days before the slayings, Manning had been firing a handgun at a tree behind their house, according to court records. FBI experts testified they matched bullets from the tree to those recovered from the scene of the slayings.

    Read more: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal - Willie Jerome Manning awaits word on execution
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  6. #26
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Filing: FBI identified 2nd error in death row case of Willie Jerome Manning

    The lawyer for a Mississippi inmate scheduled for execution Tuesday says in a court filing that the FBI has identified another error in the case.

    Willie Jerome Manning's execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. for the 1992 slayings of two college students.

    A filing Tuesday with the Mississippi Supreme Court includes a copy of an FBI letter the defense says it received late Monday.

    The letter says there was incorrect testimony related to tests on bullets found in a tree by Manning's house that were compared to bullets found in the victims.

    The letter says that kind of examination "is not based on absolute certainty."

    Last week, the FBI said its microscopic analysis of evidence, particularly of hair samples found in Miller's car, contained erroneous statements.

    http://www.clarionledger.com/viewart...Jerome-Manning
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  7. #27
    joerodney
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    It appears that Willie Manning's execution set for May 7 is for the double murder of Pamela Tiffany Miller and Jon Stephen Steckler. He is not being executed for the murders of 90-year-old Emmoline Jimmerson and 60-year-old Alberta Jordan. Appeals are still pending in that particular case from what I have been able to find reported on the internet.

    The "bullet evidence" introduced by the prosecution in the Miller/Steckler murder trial was deemed compelling evidence of guilt by the Mississippi Supreme Court. In the Court's most recent opinion this appears: "In what this Court described as even “[m]ore damning testimony[,]” FBI experts testified that the bullets retrieved from that tree were fired from the same gun as the bullets recovered at the scene of the murders and from the victims’ bodies, to the exclusion of all other guns."

    From the post above, it sounds like the FBI may be backing off the "bullet evidence" given at trial. And there can be little doubt that the bullet evidence was a compelling factor in the jury's decision to convict Manning. If this evidence is now "in doubt," that increases the odds that a stay of execution is in the wind.

    While the volume of circumstantial evidence against Manning is substantial, the chances are good that the Courts or the Governor may have doubts about the degree that the "bullet evidence" plus the "hair evidence" combined played in the conviction of Manning. This would lead them to grant a stay of execution to allow sufficient time to evaluate these issues.

    I don't know what the FBI letter states about the bullet evidence, or how strongly it is stated or worded.

    Prediction: A stay of execution will be granted by a Court or the Governor.

    I am a proponent of the death penalty. From what I have read, the circumstantial evidence of Manning's guilt is substantial. But the "system" may conclude that he deserves yet another day in court.

  8. #28
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by joerodney View Post

    I don't know what the FBI letter states about the bullet evidence, or how strongly it is stated or worded.
    Manning's lawyers said in a filing with the Mississippi Supreme Court that the execution should be stopped based on the Justice Department's admission and previous disclosures about testimony that it says exceeded the limits of science.

    The letter, sent late Monday, said there was incorrect testimony related to tests on bullets found in a tree by Manning's house that were compared to bullets found in the victims.

    That kind of examination "is not based on absolute certainty but rather a reasonable degree of scientific certainty," the letter said.


    http://www.clarionledger.com/viewart...Jerome-Manning

    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    That kind of examination "is not based on absolute certainty but rather a reasonable degree of scientific certainty," the letter said.
    I don't think that should be enough to stop the execution, but I agree Manning may receive a stay.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  9. #29
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    Mississippi Supreme Court issues stay of execution for Manning.

    http://www.mdoc.state.ms.us/PressRel...%20Manning.pdf
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

  10. #30
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    The Mississippi Supreme Court has blocked the execution of Willie Jerome Manning, which had been scheduled for Tuesday evening.

    Manning had been set to die by injection shortly after 6 p.m. CDT at the state prison in Parchman for the 1992 slayings of two college students.

    The court said the execution should be delayed until it rules further on the case.

    The FBI has said in recent days that there were errors in agent's testimony about ballistics tests and hair analysis in the case.

    Manning was convicted in 1994.

    http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi...ourt_bloc.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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