PUBLISHER'S NOTE: WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?")
————————————————————
-------------------------------------------------------
GIST: "Attorneys for a man sentenced to death for killing two Mississippi State University students nearly 30 years ago say new evidence has come to light that could clear his name.
Last week, attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court for permission to file a successive petition for post-conviction relief for Willie Jerome Manning.
The filing was submitted just days before the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request from Manning to have evidence in his case tested at a specialized DNA laboratory.
Manning was sentenced to die in 1994 for the murders of Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller, two MSU students.
“Manning has always maintained his innocence, and the state’s case against him was weak from the start – with no DNA or other physical evidence linking him to the murders,” wrote the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, the state agency that handles appeals for death row inmates.
“Willie Manning is sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit.”
In a 92-page filing submitted to the high court, attorneys say several of the state’s key witnesses were coerced into falsely testifying against Manning in exchange for lesser charges in their own cases.
They also say that new scientific developments raise questions about the reliability of the hair and firearms analyses used to convict him.
Manning already has been cleared of two other murders, the 1993 deaths of Alberta Jordan and Emmoline Jimmerson, according to ThinkProgress.
A key witness recanted his testimony in that case. Later, the Oktibbeha County district attorney dropped charges against Manning after the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, ThinkProgress reported.
As for the witnesses in the case of the MSU students, several witnesses have come forward in recent years saying their initial testimony was false, including a person said to be the state’s key witness, Earl Jordan.
Jordan testified that he heard Manning admit to killing the two college students despite giving a prior statement that he believed two other suspects were involved.
Jordan later changed his story after the sheriff promised he would not be charged as a habitual offender for his most recent crimes, which included looting an MSU fraternity, court records state.
“[As Jordan] put it, ‘The sheriff said he knew I could be charged as a habitual offender and that time was running out,’” court documents state. “Jordan also explained that the sheriff ‘had a way of making it clear that he would help me out if I helped him with Manning.’”
The sheriff at the time was Dolph Bryan.
Documents show that Jordan was later sentenced to three years in prison but released on credit for time served. He was not charged as a habitual offender.
Another witness, Paula Hathorn, also was facing eight to 10 years and $10,000 in fines for writing fraudulent checks.
“On secret recordings, Hathorn declared several times that she was being threatened with prosecution,” attorneys write. “In another conversation that was not transcribed until after the evidentiary hearing, Hathorn confided to Manning that the sheriff accused her of participating in a cover-up, specifically hiding the murder weapon.”
No gun was ever found in the case, and footprints recovered from the crime scene did not match any shoes in Manning’s home.
Hathorn received $17,500 in reward money for her effort. Prior to the trial, attorneys for Manning say deputies gave Hathorn cash, helped her with bills, and paid for furniture.
As for other evidence, court filings indicate the FBI admitted the forensic evidence its experts testified to in the Manning trial was “false.”
Testimony included a ballistics examination that determined the bullet Manning fired in a tree came from the same gun used to kill Steckler and Miller.
Another expert said that the hair removed from the vehicle owned by one of the MSU students came from an African-American individual. But it was not determined the hair was Manning’s.
In 2022, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied Manning’s petition for mitochondrial DNA testing after a lab chosen by Manning and the state determined hair samples from the nearly 30-year-old case “were too small or degraded” to obtain DNA.
Manning sought to send the hair samples to another lab that specialized in developing profiles from degraded samples. The Mississippi Supreme Court denied that petition.
Manning appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, on Monday, also denied the petition.
Court records state the sheriff believed the students came up while a suspect was burglarizing their vehicle. The suspect then forced them into the car at gunpoint, drove them to another location, and shot them.
“In 2013, the Department of Justice stated in a letter to the parties... that the trial testimony of the FBI firearms was [in] ‘error’ because ‘the science regarding firearms examinations does not permit examiner testimony that a specific gun fired a specific bullet to the exclusion of all other guns in the world,’” attorneys state.
Letters from the DOJ also show the agency now condemns expert testimony that the hair found in the victims’ vehicle came from a Black person.
“The FBI repudiated the conclusions about the hair evidence reached by its analyst in 2013, and now scientific advances have shown the testimony about the bullet comparison lack any scientific validity,” attorneys for Manning write. “The only reasonable conclusion to draw is that Manning is entitled to post-conviction relief.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
------------------------------------------------------------------
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
—————————————————
