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Thread: Donnis George Musgrove - Alabama

  1. #1
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Donnis George Musgrove - Alabama




    Summary of Offense:

    In 1988, in a consolidated trial, David Walter Rogers and Donnis George Musgrove were convicted of capital murder and both were sentenced to death.

    In the early morning of September 27, 1986, two men armed with handguns broke into a small house in Robinwood, in Jefferson County, Alabama. The house was occupied by Coy Eugene Barron, his wife Libby, their baby, and an overnight guest, Jamie Crawford, who was asleep on a mattress in the living room. The men kicked in the front door of the darkened house and proceeded directly to the single bedroom where Coy and Libby and their baby were sleeping.

    Coy awoke and attempted to hold the bedroom door closed while his wife stood behind him, holding the baby. The men forced the door open and when Coy picked up a bottle as if to throw it at them, they each fired a shot. One of the shots missed, but the other fatally injured Coy. After the shots, the men quickly fled.

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld death penalty cases from Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties.

    The court ruled 5-0 Friday against Roy Edward Perkins in his second round of appeals from his capital murder conviction in Tuscaloosa County. He was sentenced to die for the shooting death of Cathy Gilliam during a kidnapping in August 1990. The appeals court rejected his argument that there were errors in his trial, including the use of false evidence.

    The court also ruled 5-0 against Donnis George Musgrove in his second round of appeals from his capital murder conviction for the September 1986 shooting death of Coy Eugene Barron at his home in the Robinwood community near Birmingham. The court turned down Musgrove's argument that newly discovered evidence would prove him innocent.

    http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/art...#ixzz2B6ulDyH3
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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On November 20, 2014, Musgrove filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/ala...cv02252/153563

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Ala Judge: Death Row Inmate Got 'Raw Deal' in Murder Trial

    By JAY REEVES
    The Associated Press

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama inmate who has spent almost 30 years on death row for a murder he denies committing has an unusual supporter in his bid for freedom: A state judge who once represented the man's co-defendant while working as a defense lawyer.

    Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail told The Associated Press in an interview this week he believes Donnis George Musgrove and another man were wrongly convicted of capital murder in 1988, and he hopes a federal court now reviewing Musgrove's appeal corrects the error.

    "I really think they got a raw deal and I've always felt they were not guilty of this offense," Nail said during an interview in his office.

    A judge since 1999, Nail represented David Rogers when Rogers and Musgrove were convicted in the 1986 gunshot killing of Coy Eugene Barron. Both men received the death sentence.

    Rogers and Musgrove were best friends and career car thieves, Nail said, but both always denied having any role in Barron's shooting.

    Nail said he believed their claims of innocence then and still believes them today, particularly after learning of "eerie" similarities between their trial and the case of Anthony Ray Hinton, another Alabama death row inmate who was freed recently after proclaiming his innocence for years.

    The same judge, prosecutor and forensic expert were involved in the cases against Musgrove and Rogers and Hinton, he said. Each case also involved questionable weapons analysis, defendants with solid alibis and allegations of prosecutorial overreach, he said.

    "I would hope somebody would see all of these things and try to correct these things," Nail said. "But it's a very tough process."

    Rogers died of natural causes on death row, but Musgrove, 66, is currently asking a federal judge in Birmingham to overturn his conviction and death sentence. He has been on death row for 28 years.

    Prosecutors haven't filed written responses to Musgrove's claims, and Attorney General Luther Strange's office declined comment on Nail's remarks. But the state has defended the conviction since Musgrove's earliest appeals.

    A federal judge has given prosecutors until June 8 to respond to Musgrove's arguments that he was wrongly convicted.

    Barron was shot to death on Sept. 27, 1986. Prosecutors said two men entered his home in the middle of the night and opened fire.

    The state's main witness, Barron's wife Libby, initially told police she couldn't identify the killers from the darkened home, and at first she failed to select Rogers and Musgrove out of a lineup, Nail said. She even wrongly identified two plainclothes police officers as the killers, Nail said.

    "Then, 10 minutes later when the detective talks to her, they bring her back and she positively IDs both of them," said Nail, calling the identification "shaky."

    Forensic evidence also was important in the trial.

    Prosecutors said a 9 mm shell casing found at the scene of Barron's slaying was linked to a pistol Musgrove used in an assault three months earlier. But later testing showed that the shell casing found at the murder scene was planted and not linked to the crime at all, Musgrove's current attorneys contend.

    Jurors heard from a supposed jailhouse informant who claimed Rogers told him about Barron's killing and implicated Musgrove, but the informant later recanted and said he'd been put up to the testimony by police and the late Bob McGregor, an assistant district attorney who also prosecuted Hinton.

    Given all the questions, Musgrove's federal petition "raises a pretty strong presumption" of innocence, Nail said.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/a...urder-31412680

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Alabama death row inmate not wrongly convicted, Luther Strange argues

    Prosecutors say a man who has spent nearly three decades on Alabama's death row was not wrongfully convicted and argue that a federal judge should reject his appeal.

    The state attorney general's office filed a brief Monday asking a federal judge to reject Donnis George Musgrove's request to overturn his conviction and death sentence.

    Musgrove was convicted of capital murder in February 1988 in Jefferson County. The jury recommended a death sentence, and the circuit court judge followed that recommendation at a sentencing hearing several months later.

    Musgrove, now 66, has spent the intervening years fighting his conviction and sentence – and maintaining his innocence. He exhausted his options for state appeals and is now appealing in federal court, the standard procedure in capital cases.

    The appeal is before U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama R. David Proctor.

    In a November court filing, Musgrove's attorneys argued that his conviction and death sentence should be overturned based on issues of falsified eyewitness identification, prosecutorial misconduct, disputed ballistics evidence and the testimony of a jailhouse informant who later recanted.

    In a response filed Monday, prosecutors counter that Musgrove's claims should be dismissed because they were not raised at trial or on direct appeal. Therefore, they argue, a federal judge cannot grant Musgrove's request and must deny all 13 claims.

    Musgrove and a co-defendant, David Walter Rogers, were convicted in the death of Coy Eugene Barron, who was slain in his Robinwood home in September 1986. Rogers died of natural causes while on death row.

    Assistant Attorney General Henry M. Johnson filed the brief on behalf of the state.

    Musgrove is being represented on appeal by Cissy Jackson, Andrew Smith and David Keyko.

    Musgrove's attorneys released a statement saying they are steadfast in their belief that their client is innocent and did not receive a fair trial. Their statement reads in full.

    "In particular, we presented unrebutted evidence that the key witnesses lied at the behest of the state and unrebutted scientific evidence that the only physical evidence presented by the prosecution at trial – the shell casings – was falsified by the State. It is disappointing that rather than address this very troubling evidence, the State's primary arguments continue to be that Mr. Musgrove's evidence should have been raised at trial, in his motion for a new trial, or on direct appeal and so his claims are procedurally barred. Despite the detailed evidence presented, the State also contends that Mr. Musgrove's claims are conclusory and so not valid. A defendant should not have to defend against evidence that has been fabricated by the State – and that is what much of Mr. Musgrove's petition is based upon. For example, on pages 10-11 of the States' brief, they argue that Mr. Musgrove should have raised at trial, in his motion for a new trial, or direct appeal that trial testimony by a police officer that he was the first officer on the scene and took eye witness identification statements matching the description of the defendants was false because in fact another police officer took the statements, the eyewitness (the victim's wife) said she saw nothing and the officer who testified at trial was sick and never left his police car. The State is required to disclose this type of evidence; the defendants are not required to ferret it out or be barred from ever raising it."

    http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/in...l#incart_river
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  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Alabama Death Row Inmate: State Ignoring Claims of Innocence

    The latest Alabama inmate seeking freedom from death row maintains the state is wrongly ignoring his claims of innocence while his health fails behind bars, one of his attorneys said Monday.

    Legal arguments filed by Donnis Musgrove contend the state is arguing about technicalities rather addressing legitimate concerns about the man's 1988 conviction and death sentence.

    Musgrove's appeal is currently in federal court, and the defense is asking the judge to rule quickly because the prisoner has lung cancer and was hospitalized last week in grave condition, said Cissy Jackson, one of his lawyers.

    "We would love to get him out of prison ... so he could have some peace after being wrongfully imprisoned for so many years," said Jackson.

    Out of the hospital and sent back to Donaldson prison near Birmingham, Musgrove will be treated in the prison infirmary for an indefinite period, Jackson said.

    The attorney general's office didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on Musgrove's legal arguments or health.

    The state has argued that rules prohibit Musgrove from making new claims about being innocent and bar him from questioning evidence used in his trial, but prosecutors haven't directly addressed his arguments about being wrongfully convicted based on bogus evidence conjured by prosecutors and police.

    Musgrove, 67, was sentenced to die for the gunshot killing of Coy Eugene Barron in 1986, but his attorneys maintain the prosecution falsified every piece of evidence against him, including witness statements and a shell casing that was used to link him to the slaying.

    The defense earlier this year asked a federal judge in Birmingham to overturn Musgrove's conviction, and his lawyers filed a brief late Friday accusing the state of failing to address questions about innocence.

    Prosecutors had no immediate response, and they won't necessarily have to file additional documents before U.S. District Judge David Proctor rules on Musgrove's bid for freedom.

    Musgrove is trying to become the third inmate freed from Alabama's death row since April. Lawyers asked Proctor to rule quickly because of Musgrove's ill health.

    Two other men have been released from Alabama's death row since April after winning appeals. One of them, Anthony Ray Hinton, was tried by the same Jefferson County prosecutor and judge who handled Musgrove's case, and the same ballistics expert was involved in each case.

    Musgrove contends the evidence of wrongdoing in his case is more extensive than in the case against Hinton.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/a...cence-33286313
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  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    What is the point of this? The man is dying from lung cancer and at the rate the state of Alabama has been executing prisoners the cancer will get him before the state will.

  8. #8
    Moderator mostlyclassics's Avatar
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    Alabama inmate Donnis Musgrove seeking freedom from death row dies at 67 years old

    BESSEMER, Ala. (AP) – An attorney says an Alabama death row inmate who was seeking to overturn his murder conviction has died.

    Attorney Cissy Jackson said Donnis Musgrove died Wednesday night at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Jackson said Musgrove was suffering from lung cancer.

    Musgrove, 67, was sentenced to die for the gunshot killing of Coy Eugene Barron in 1986.

    However, Musgrove has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and his attorneys contend the prosecution falsified the evidence against him, including witness statements and a shell casing that was used to link him to the slaying.

    The attorney general's office previously has declined to comment on Musgrove's legal arguments.

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