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Thread: Kimber Edwards - Missouri

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    Kimber Edwards - Missouri




    Summary of Offense:

    In 1990, Kimber Edwards and Kimberly Cantrell divorced. Cantrell received primary physical custody of their daughter, Erica, and Edwards was ordered to pay child support. In 1995, his child support obligation was raised to $351 per month. In March 2000, Edwards was charged with failing to pay any of his child support obligation for one year. He pleaded not guilty, and his case was set for a court appearance on August 25, 2000. Erica stayed with her father, his wife and their two children for three weeks prior to August 22, 2000, at their St. Louis city home.

    When Erica did not hear from her mother by August 23, and Cantrell did not arrive to pick Erica up, Erica called her aunt. The aunt went to Cantrell's home and found her dead, shot twice in the head at close range. Cantrell's 12-year-old neighbor told police he heard shots and a woman's scream early in the evening of August 22, and his older brother had seen a black man with a black backpack banging on Cantrell's door that afternoon.

    Ortell Wilson, a tenant in one of Edwards' rental properties who matched the boy's description ultimately was arrested for and convicted of murdering Cantrell. Wilson implicated Edwards in the murder, and Edwards was arrested August 27, 2000. Edwards waived his Miranda rights and told police he had hired someone named "Michael" to kill Cantrell for $1,600 and that Edwards had helped in the murder.The jury found Edwards guilty of first-degree murder, found the existence of one statutory aggravating circumstance and recommended the death penalty. The court sentenced Edwards to death, and he appeals.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Inmate Personal Information

    DOB: 03/29/1964
    Race: Black
    Gender: Male

    Crime and Trial Information

    * County of conviction: St. Louis
    * Number of counts: One
    * Race of Victim: Black
    * Gender of Victim: Female
    * Date of crime: 08/22/2000
    * Date of Sentencing: 06/27/2002

    Legal Status

    Current Proceedings:
    Filed Rule 59(e) motion in E.D. Mo. on
    10/08/2009

    Attorney

    Jeremy Weis
    Kent Gipson

    Court Opinions

    State v. Edwards, 116 S.W.3d 511 (Mo. banc 2003), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 1186 (2004); Edwards v. State, 200 S.W.3d 500 (Mo. banc 2006),
    cert. denied, 549 U.S. 1255 (2007); Edwards v. Roper, 2009 WL3164112 (E.D. Mo. Sept. 28, 2009).

    Legal Issues

    In habeas:
    1. whether evidence that codefendant was sentenced to life imprisonment was mitigating evidence that defendant had a federal constitutional right to present in penalty phase;
    2. whether record supported motion court's conclusion that defense counsel adequately investigated defendant's childhood for mitigation evidence;
    3. whether defense counsel made reasonable strategic decision in penalty phase to not present certain evidence on defendant's childhood;
    4. whether defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance in penalty phase by not calling an expert who could testify about defendant's alleged mental problems;
    5. whether defense counsel reasonably abandoned any possibility of a mental‐disease defense or
    mitigation evidence; and
    6. whether disqualification of motion judge was required due to his comments about public defender's

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On January 13, 2011, Edwards filed an appeal before the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/browse/noscat-6/nos-535/

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On August 20, 2012, the Eighth Circuit DENIED Edwards' appeal.

    http://www.ca8.uscourts.gov/opns/opFrame.html

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On October 19, 2012, the Eighth Circuit DENIED Edwards' petition for a rehearing en banc.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/12-9355.htm

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

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/12-9355.htm

  7. #7
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Missouri sets execution date for contract killer

    The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled a May 12 execution for a former St. Louis jailer convicted of hiring someone to kill his ex-wife in 2000.

    The state's high court set the execution date Thursday for Kimber Edwards, who turns 51 on Sunday.

    Thirty-five year-old Kimberly Cantrell was shot and killed in August 2000 in her apartment in University City near St. Louis. The man Edwards was convicted of hiring, Orthell Wilson, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

    Prosecutors said Edwards wanted Cantrell dead to relieve him of paying overdue child support.

    Edwards insisted at trial he had been framed and had no motive to harm his ex-wife because the former couple had worked out a deal to make up the child support.

    http://www.kmbc.com/news/missouri-se...iller/32036164

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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Missouri Supreme Court lifts order for May execution

    The Missouri Supreme Court has lifted its execution order for Kimber Edwards, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection in May.

    Edwards, 50, is a former St. Louis City jailer who in 2000 hired one or two people to kill his ex-wife to whom he owed a year’s worth of child support. The court two weeks ago set his execution to happen between 6 p.m. May 12 and 5:59 May 13 at the prison in Bonne Terre, but on Wednesday issued an order lifting that execution warrant.

    The Court does not offer an explanation for its action, however Edwards’ attorneys responded on the day his execution was scheduled asking for a stay on the grounds that both have other clients with pending court proceedings that would conflict with their being able to work on his case leading up to May 12.

    Missouri is scheduled to next week carry out the execution of 52-year-old Andre Cole for the murder of a friend of his ex-wife in a dispute over child support. His execution is scheduled to happen within a 24-hour period beginning at 6 p.m. April 14.

    http://www.missourinet.com/category/death-penalty/

  9. #9
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Killer says he framed ex-husband in 2000 murder

    A man serving life without parole in the 2000 murder-for-hire of a University City woman told the Post-Dispatch on Thursday that he was solely responsible for the killing.

    Orthell Wilson, 54, said in a telephone interview from Jefferson City Correctional Center that he lied when he said Kimber Edwards had hired him to kill Edwards’ ex-wife, Kimberly Cantrell.

    Edwards had been scheduled to be executed in May. On Wednesday, however, the Missouri Supreme Court halted the execution, apparently to give his lawyers more time because they are busy with other cases.

    Wilson said he couldn’t remember exactly what he told authorities years ago, but said he thought he framed Edwards to help himself avoid the death penalty.

    Wilson said he told Edwards’ lawyers years ago that he had lied about being hired, and court records indicate that his recantation was ruled inadmissible.

    Wilson, who at one time worked for Edwards as a maintenance man, said no one has asked him about the case in 12 years.

    “Him and I never had that conversation about him trying to kill his wife,” said Wilson. “We never had that conversation. I’m just telling you point blank.”

    At Edwards’ murder trial, prosecutors said Edwards contracted Cantrell’s murder to prevent her testimony in a child-support hearing that could have led to criminal charges against Edwards due to a year’s backlog of payments.

    Police said Edwards told them he had hired someone to kill Cantrell, but his lawyers argued that the statement was coerced because police were threatening to bring in his wife and children for questioning. His attorney at the time said his client was the victim of a frame-up by former renters he had evicted, some of whom testified against him. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2002.

    Edwards, who is being held on death row at Potosi Correctional Center, agreed to a telephone interview with the Post-Dispatch, but a Department of Corrections spokesman said Edwards would not be available until Friday.

    On Thursday, Wilson said he believed Edwards was innocent, and was happy to hear from a reporter that Edwards’ execution had been postponed.

    Wilson was not a witness at Edwards’ trial, but his out-of-court statements were admitted as evidence at the trial. The jury was unaware that he had been convicted and had implicated Edwards as the man who hired him to kill Cantrell.

    Wilson said Thursday that he killed Cantrell during a robbery.

    He said he was after “drugs and money … I had habits; you understand what I’m saying?”

    “It was my doing, it was my choice and I did that, and that was wrong.”

    Why did he lie 15 years ago? “Things were just moving fast. I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I don’t know. It was 15 years ago. I have no idea what I was thinking back then.”

    St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch could not be reached for comment on the Edwards case Thursday.

    In exchange for Wilson’s guilty plea, prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against him, and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Wilson told police that Edwards gave him a key to Cantrell’s apartment, a gun and $500 of a promised $3,500 for the killing.

    Edwards’ execution was mentioned in a letter sent this month to Gov. Jay Nixon and signed by dozens of elected officials, clerk members and opponents of the death penalty. They asked that the pending executions of Edwards and another man be halted while an investigation is done to examine the exclusion of blacks from juries in St. Louis County death penalty cases.

    “A Board of Inquiry should investigate whether the St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office has intentionally and systematically excluded African-Americans from jury service in capital cases,” the letter said.

    St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch told a Post-Dispatch reporter the allegation was not true. “That issue on those two cases has been litigated at least four or five times at every level,” he said.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...fe6b9cf26.html

  10. #10
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Lawyers ask for special master to consider innocence claim in death penalty case

    Lawyers for Kimber Edwards, who was sentenced to death for the 2000 murder-for-hire of his ex-wife, have asked the state Supreme Court to appoint a special master in the case to consider claims that he is innocent.

    The request follows a claim by Orthell Wilson, who is serving life without parole, that he was solely responsible for the killing and did not do so at Edwards’ behest.

    In April, Wilson told a Post-Dispatch reporter in a telephone interview from Jefferson City Correctional Center that he lied when he told authorities that Edwards had hired him to kill Edwards’ ex-wife, Kimberly Cantrell. Wilson said he couldn’t remember exactly what he told authorities years ago, but said he thought he framed Edwards to help himself avoid the death penalty.

    Edwards had been scheduled to be executed in May but the Missouri Supreme Court halted the execution to give his lawyers more time.

    In a document filed with the Supreme Court, Edwards' lawyers Kent Gipson and Jeremy Weis argued that Wilson’s newest claim proves he was a liar who changed stories. But “St. Louis County prosecutors took Wilson’s third statement as gospel and agreed to allow him to avoid a death sentence in exchange for his agreement to testify at petitioner’s capital trial.” They also said Edwards’ confession could be false because he is autistic.

    A representative for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch could not immediately be reached for comment.

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/c...929595795.html

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