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Willie Jerome Manning is ‘sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit,’ his attorneys say, as they fight state efforts to set an execution date

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Willie Jerome Manning is ‘sentenced to die for a crime he did not commit,’ his attorneys say, as they fight state efforts to set an execution date

As the seeks to set his execution date, Willie Jerome Manning continues to maintain his innocence, challenging a double-murder conviction that his attorneys say was based on unreliable evidence, including the recanted word of a jailhouse informant and forensics the Justice Department deemed faulty.

Manning was convicted of the shooting deaths of Mississippi State University students Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler in 1994. He has pursued appeals and post-conviction relief that have questioned the state’s evidence and testimony that served as the foundation of his conviction.

“Willie Manning is to die for a he did not commit,” states the opening line of his Sept. 29 petition for post-conviction relief.

Last month, Lynn Fitch asked for a stay of Manning’s execution, granted in 2013, to be lifted and for his execution to be scheduled. She also is seeking an execution date for Robert Simon Jr., who has been on row for over 30 years.

In response, Manning’s attorneys from the Office of Post Conviction Counsel are seeking to dismiss the motion and allow him to continue to his conviction.

His attorneys said in an Oct. 10 statement that the state hasn’t responded to the petition or considered the evidence. The state said deadlines in other death penalty cases through the end of the year have prevented it from responding to Manning’s petition, according to court records.

The court approved a Dec. 29 extension.

As of Monday, the has not yet set an execution date for Manning.

The bodies of Miller and Steckler were discovered early Dec. 11, 1992. Steckler was shot in the back of the head and run over with Miller’s car. Miller was shot in the face at close range, and she was found with one leg out of her pants and underwear and her shirt pulled up, according to court documents.

From the beginning, law enforcement struggled to come up with leads, including a theory that the murders were connected to a car break-in that happened outside of a university fraternity that Steckler was a member of. The sheriff believed the couple encountered Manning during a break-in and he forced them to drive to another location, where he killed them.

It wasn’t until months after the shootings that Manning became a prime . The state argued that he was caught selling items linked to Jon and taken from the burglarized car. Because there wasn’t physical evidence to link him to the murders or the car burglary, Manning’s attorneys argued that this urged the state to turn to jailhouse informants.

Manning, who has spent more than half of his 55 years on death row, allegedly confessed to the killings to his cousin, Earl Jordan. Jordan lied about the confession and another man, Frank Parker, who was also in jail, lied about overhearing Manning talking to another man about how he disposed of the murder weapon, according to new affidavits cited in the post-conviction petition.

His attorneys argue that the testimony of Paula Hathorn, Manning’s former girlfriend, was not entirely reliable because law enforcement pressured her for her cooperation, which included receiving a cash reward of $17,500 for being a state witness at trial, according to court documents.

She also provided the state with the link to a gun believed to have killed Steckler and Miller. An FBI firearms examiner bullets found on the victims’ bodies to ones removed from trees in Manning’s yard, which she said he shot at for target practice, according to court records.

A 2013 letter from the Department of Justice said there were errors from FBI testimony about firearms and hair analysis. This led to the delay of Manning’s scheduled execution to allow the testing of evidence, including a rape kit and fingernail scrapings.

The firearms testimony was an error because the science behind 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”, according to court documents.

A firearms expert who worked with Manning’s attorneys and commented on findings of the DOJ’s 2013 letter provided affidavits that year. In another affidavit provided this year, the expert said new research and studies have shown that firearm identification and toolmark analysis are an unreliable form of forensic science, according to court records. 

Manning should be granted a new trial based on the state’s use of scientifically invalid testimony, his attorneys argued.

“There are already compelling reasons to question the reliability of the convictions,” the post-conviction relief petition states. “When the totality of available evidence is reviewed, there is no longer any reliable basis for Manning’s convictions to stand.”

Attorneys laid out grounds for the court to grant relief, including how the state allegedly violated Manning’s due rights when it “intentionally or merely failed to disclose” evidence favorable to his defense, including the sheriff’s arrangement for Jordan to cooperate in exchange for reduced charges and how the overheard conversation about Manning disposing of the weapon never happened, according to court records.

Manning has already been exonerated in another double murder case. His attorneys noted similarities in how law enforcement pursued a case against him.

In 1993, Manning was accused of killing 90-year old Alberta Jordan and her 60-year-old daughter Emmoline Jimmerson in their Starkville apartment, and convicted for their murders in 1996.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ordered a new trial in the case after determining the state violated Manning’s due-process rights “by failing to provide favorable, material evidence,” according to court records. Since the state’s main witness recanted his statements in sworn affidavits, then-Oktibbeha County District Attorney Forrest Allgood dismissed the charges, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

A study by the registry found that false testimony or accusations were the single largest factor in wrongful homicide convictions between 1989 and 2012.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1875

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-02 07:00:00

Nov. 2, 1875

Pictured here are U.S. Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, left, with six Black members of the U.S. House, Ben J.S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson H. Long of Georgia, and Robert C. De Large, Joseph H. Rainy and R. Brown Elliot, all of South Carolina. Credit: Library of

The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from , resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the

A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state. 

Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton. 

The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan. 

John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.” 

A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today’s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader ; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday life—whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that understand and engage with what’s happening around them.

Special Event: “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact”

As part of the campaign, we’re to host a special virtual , “Freedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.” Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s “25-foot ,” which affects journalists’ ability to vital news.

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we love—not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction “overly broad” in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as “federal intrusion into RDC’s budget” – especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion. 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

“But the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,” the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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