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Thread: Michael Eugene Sample - Tennessee

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Michael Eugene Sample - Tennessee




    Facts of the Crime:

    On August 29, 1981, at approximately 11:00 p.m. Melvin Wallace, Jr., went into the L & G Sundry Store at 1069 North Watkins in Memphis to purchase two barbecue sandwiches. When he entered, there were four men in the Sundry Store, including two clerks, Benjamin Cooke and Steve Jones, who were known to Wallace as he was a regular customer. The other two black men were the defendants, Larry McKay and Michael Eugene Sample. Wallace did not know them but positively identified them in a line-up at 2:43 p.m. on August 31, 1981, as the murderers of Cooke and Jones and Sample as the person who shot him in the thigh and back and attempted to shoot him in the head.

    Wallace testified that he went to the back of the store where Cooke had gone to prepare the sandwiches. McKay was also standing in the back with a quart of 45 Beer mumbling to himself. Not wanting to get involved with a drunk, Wallace turned and directed his attention to the front of the store where Jones and defendant Sample were standing. When he thought the sandwiches would be ready, he looked around at Cooke and saw that McKay had gone behind the counter and was holding a gun at Cooke's head. When Wallace realized "it was a robbery" and "broke and ran for the front door," Sample hollered for him to halt and shot him in the thigh. Wallace tried to play dead but Sample came over and said, "This nigger ain't dead," and shot him in the back. Wallace had heard Sample demanding that Jones give him all the money and heard Jones say, "Man, I gave you everything I had." After hearing Sample say several times, "I ought to kill all you son-of-a-bitches," Wallace heard him say, "Kill every son-of-a-bitch in here," and the defendants started shooting. Wallace testified he saw McKay shoot Cooke in the head. Sample came back to where Wallace was lying on the floor and put a pistol to his head. It clicked several times and did not go off. Wallace testified that he "came up off the floor" and started wrestling with Sample. The gun went off past Wallace's head and he lapsed into unconsciousness. When Wallace woke up, he heard Sample say, "Let's get the hell out of here."

    Cooke and Jones died from the bullet wounds to their heads; but when the police arrived shortly after the killers left, Wallace was able to give them information about the episode and gave a description of the killers while he was receiving medical care at the scene and at the hospital. One of the investigating officers remembered that a grocery store across the street from the L & G Sundry Store had been robbed about ten days earlier, and that the witnesses had said the robbers were two black males wearing blue-green surgical caps. Among the items taken in that robbery was a .45 caliber automatic pistol that had a tendency to misfire. Shell casings from a .45 caliber automatic were found in the Sundry Store; and putting together leads from the two robberies, the police apprehended Sample and McKay the next day. They were in a car with a third man, and the .45 automatic with the serial number of the pistol stolen from the grocery across the street was found on McKay. A .32 caliber revolver was found inside the car. Bullets recovered from Jones' cheek, Cooke's head and chest and Wallace's leg had been fired from the .32 caliber revolver found in the car. Two blue hospital surgical caps were found in the car. More than two hundred and perhaps as much as seven hundred dollars in cash was stolen from the Sundry Store; and McKay, who was unemployed, had $166.30 on his person when arrested. Sample and $195 in cash at that time. The third man in the vehicle testified to incriminating circumstances linking defendants to recent criminal activity.

    Charles Rice, age sixteen, went to the L & G Sundry Store to buy cigarettes and as he arrived at the door he saw the robbery in progress, specifically the gun pointed at the head of one of the clerks. He turned and ran home and told his mother what the had seen and later reported the information to the police. He made a positive identification of both defendants.

    For more on McKay, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ssee-Death-Row

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 9, 2011, Sample filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ten...cv02362/59002/

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Sample's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Western Division
    Case Numbers: (W2016-02325-CCA-R28-PD)
    Decision Date: December 29, 2016
    Discretionary Court Decision Date: April 13, 2017

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/17-5940.html

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

    Lower court: Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Western Division
    Case Nos.: (W2016-0234-CCA-R28-PD)
    Decision date: August 4, 2017
    Rehearing denied: November 21, 2017
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Sample's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Western Division
    Case Numbers: (W2017-02370-CCA-R28-PD)
    Decision Date: April 23, 2018
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  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Inmate convicted in 1981 Memphis murder moved off death row

    By Stacy Jacobson
    WREG

    A man convicted of double murder in Shelby County and sentenced to death will no longer face capital punishment.

    Michael Sample’s death sentence has been vacated.

    Sample and Larry McKay were both convicted in 1983 for double murder in 1981 at the L&G convenience store on North Watkins Street.

    Years after the conviction, federal and then state laws changed regarding the treatment of intellectually disabled inmates.

    In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned death sentences for people with intellectual disabilities. But there was still a gray area for people sentenced in earlier years like Sample and another notable Shelby County inmate, Pervis Payne.

    The Payne case caught the attention of Heidi Haines, who was in the process of moving to Tennessee to take over as executive director of the Arc Tennessee, an organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities.

    “Someone with an intellectual disability is someone who requires additional supports from community or family to be able to live in society,” Haines said.

    In 2020, Haines and other disability advocates pushed for action at the state legislature to update Tennessee law to clarify no one with an intellectual disability could be put to death.

    It passed and had an immediate impact on Payne’s case; the Shelby County District Attorney at the time, Amy Weirich, gave up her fight to keep Payne on death row.

    “A state expert examined Payne and all available records,” Weirich said in November 2021. “We can’t change the facts and we can’t change the law.”

    Soon after, an attorney started drafting a 400-page filing for Sample, including expert testimony on his intellectually disability. His lawyer indicated he could’ve been falsely accused of murder.

    “People with intellectual disabilities sometimes have hard times making decisions and are easily influenced,” Haines said.

    Lawyers for Sample presented the case to Shelby County judge Paula Skahan in February 2023 and asked her to vacate the death sentence. Current Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy didn’t challenge the request.

    “The defendant met all three prongs of the test for intellectual disability,” Mulroy said. “I am convinced Michael Sample is intellectually disabled or was at the time of the offense.”

    Sample’s sentence was reduced to life in prison.

    Haines hadn’t heard about Sample’s case until WREG brought it to her attention.

    “It’s so exciting to hear that’s working the way it’s supposed to,” Haines said.

    Other inmates could also pursue sentence changes, though Mulroy told WREG he was not currently considering any other cases. He opposes parole in Sample’s case, he said.

    “I will look at any case where there’s a post-conviction filed we have to respond to. If there is no post-conviction filed, I won’t look at it,” Mulroy said.

    A post-conviction lawyer for Jesse Dotson, the Memphis man on death row for killing six people including multiple family members and children in 2008, is asking the state Supreme Court to pay for a mental health examination, which could set the stage for a later request.

    https://wreg.com/news/investigations...off-death-row/
    "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

  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Sample is no more intellectually disabled than any of us. Sounds like there needs to be a competency test just to practice law.
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  8. #8
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Sample has a parole hearing scheduled for next month, September 13, according to TDOC.
    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

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