Source: https://justice4willie.com/recent-news-and-updates-willie-manning-mississippi/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:26:54+00:00

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A Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) seems an unlikely setting for action against the US death penalty: conservatives have hitherto been associated with an unthinking “tough on crime” philosophy that included support for capital punishment. Perhaps all this is set to change: this year’s (CPAC) included a stall where Conservative activists sought to persuade delegates of the “inefficiency, inequity and inaccuracy” of the death penalty.
using our tax dollars efficiently, and protecting the sanctity of human life.
Willie Manning’s two death penalty cases illustrate well the points made by Cox. We wish her success.
Judge Howard of the Oktibbeha County Court has set limits to the time to be spent on DNA testing for Willie Manning’s remaining case. The judge has issued a Scheduling Order, which sets out a timetable to be followed both by Willie’s attorneys and by attorneys for the State of Mississippi.
From Feb 11, 2019… …attorneys have 30 days to inform Bode Cellmark Forensics lab as to which other hairs should be screened for DNA testing.
After the results of hair evidence screening are received from the lab… …attorneys have a further 30 days to inform the lab about what final testing or comparisons of hair evidence are needed.
After the results of final testing or comparisons of hair evidence are received from the lab… …attorneys have a further 30 days to inform the lab if any other items of evidence, already submitted to it, should be screened for DNA testing.
After the results of screening of this additional evidence are received from the lab… …attorneys have a further 30 days to notify the lab about any final testing or comparisons of this additional evidence to any samples from Willie, or from Tiffany Miller or Jon Steckler.
After deciding whether additional items, already submitted to the lab, should be screened… …attorneys have a further 30 days to file any additional motions with the Oktibbeha County Court for additional testing of any material.
We hope that Judge Howard’s order succeeds in moving the testing swiftly forward. The delays have been torturous. The waiting must end.
Note: This post was corrected on March 6, 2019; the correct date of February 11 was substituted for the incorrect date of February 19 that was originally given.
Willie Manning has won the right to a conference regarding the status of evidence testing in his remaining case (Stickler-Miller case).
The conference is to be held tomorrow, January 10, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. at the Oktibbeha County Courthouse Annex.
Willie will not be present at the conference; but he will learn about the proceedings and the outcomes from his lawyers.
We are happy that at last Willie will have proof that he has not been forgotten. We trust this makes a good start to 2019.
Willie Manning’s daughter turned 3 years old soon after he entered death row; she is now 27. Willie has thus been absent for most of his daughter’s childhood and adolescence, and for much of her twenties; he has been unable to share important milestones with her. Equally, his daughter has been unable to benefit from Willie’s support during her formative years: her father’s incarceration has punished her too.
It is not just Willie’s daughter who has missed out: his brothers and other relatives have also suffered from his absence.
This holiday season we send our very best wishes not just to Willie, but to his family as well. We trust they will not have to wait much longer before Willie can finally leave death row.
When Willie Manning was first indicted for the murders of two students, he was charged with kidnaping as well; the prosecutors later abandoned the kidnaping charge and substituted robbery. Both kidnaping and robbery allowed them to seek the death penalty for the murders.
The robbery in this case involved items missing from an unlocked car belonging to John Wise, who, like the victims, was a student at Mississippi State University in Starkville. However, the sheriff admitted that there was absolutely no evidence to support the state’s theory that the victims walked up to the car when it was being burglarized. Fingerprint lifts were taken from it during the investigation; they were not analysed. And though Willie was charged with the burglary, no physical evidence linked him to the car.
6.30 p.m. Wise parked his car outside his fraternity house.
11:00 p.m. Wise’s roommate borrowed Wise’s car keys, in order to retrieve a liter of Coke from the car.
1 a.m. The two victims left the fraternity house.
1:30 a.m. Wise went out to his car to get a cupcake that he had purchased earlier. He noticed that the door to the passenger side of the car was unlocked. “He did not notice anything amiss then, save for the doors [sic] being unlocked. There were no marks on the car at that time.” He retrieved the cupcake quickly and locked the door.
2.15 a.m. Jon Steckler was found, dreadfully wounded; he died soon afterwards. Tiffany Miller’s body, which was still warm despite the cold night, was discovered soon after Steckler was found.
8–9 a.m. Wise again went out to his car. This time he saw that it had been burglarized. “He noticed many things missing, and damage to the car.” However, there was no sign that anyone had forced an entry into the vehicle.
Presumably the prosecutors also assumed that the “many things” had already been removed from the car before 1.30, while the car was unlocked, and that Wise simply failed to notice their absence. It is unclear why there were “no marks on the car” at 1.30 a.m., but “damage to the car” at 8–9 a.m.
What is clear is that Wise’s car played so significant a role in the prosecution’s theory that thorough forensic analysis should have been undertaken at the time, to amass as much evidence as possible. Sadly, Willie had to wait until June, 2015 for a court finally to order that fingerprint lifts taken from the car, and other fingerprint lifts connected with Willie’s case, should be compared with those on searchable databases.
We trust that the forensics will be completed soon. Willie has waited far too long for justice. We wish him well.
Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Pages 12 – 13 (pages 20–21 of pdf), ¶33 and ¶36; and Page 14 (page 22 of pdf), ¶37 and ¶39. State of Mississippi Judiciary (Web), June 29, 2015.
Willie Jerome Manning a/k/a Fly v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-DR-00230-SCT, Motion for Rehearing, in the Supreme Court of Mississippi. June 18, 2004. Page 14; and page 15, ¶7. State of Mississippi Judiciary (Web), June 29, 2015.
In violation of Willie Manning’s constitutional rights, the prosecutor at his trial, aided by the judge, unfairly excluded several African Americans from the jury. Four Mississippi Supreme Court judges were later to recognize this as “a clear pattern suggesting pretextual reasons”.[i] The prosecutor’s purpose must surely have been to increase the proportion of white jurors considering the case.
Earlier this year we learnt that the same tactic has been widely used in central Mississippi, despite a US Supreme Court ruling against excluding potential jurors for reasons of race or gender. A study focusing on prosecutor Doug Evans’ office from 1981 to 2014 found that prosecutors were 4.4 times more likely to strike black jurors than white jurors.
There is no justification for this. Mississippi should follow the example of Washington State. The death penalty, underpinned as it is by racism, should finally end.
[i] Willie Jerome Manning a/k/a Fly v. State of Mississippi. 2013-DR-00491-SCT. Order. King, Justice, objecting to the order with separate written statement. Supreme Court of Mississippi. April 25, 2013. Page 18 ¶ 26. State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web, September 5, 2017.
[ii] Willie Manning v. State of Mississippi, 2013-DR-00491-SCT. Motion for Rehearing. Filed in the Supreme Court of Mississippi. April 26, 2013. Page 6 (page 7 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web, November 3, 2018.
The Wikipedia page for Willie Jerome Manning was vandalized earlier this year: it was edited “in a malicious manner that [was] intentionally disruptive.” The page was reverted to an earlier version which omitted Willie’s exoneration for the Jimmerson-Jordan murders; and it downplayed the controversy surrounding Mississippi’s refusal to allow DNA testing for the Steckler-Miller case. Fortunately Wikipedia rules prevailed: the page was restored.
Emmett’s murder has, with good reason, been described as “among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the South”. Willie’s death sentence for “a racially charged case in the Deep South” also exemplifies such racial violence: it very nearly led to “yet another Mississippi lynching”, as the state pursued his execution without prior DNA testing.
Work remains to be done, indeed.
In July, 1994, Lindy Lou Isonhood found herself on the jury for the resentencing trial of Bobby Glen Wilcher, who had stabbed two women to death. To start with, Isonhood went along with the belief commonly held in Mississippi that “an eye for an eye” was appropriate, so a murderer deserved to die.
But then Isonhood looked towards Wilcher… and saw “a living, breathing human being”. If that person had been her son, she realized, she would have wanted him to be punished, but not killed. Unfortunately, she says, the court misled her into believing that the death penalty was the only option. She watched as Wilcher was sentenced to death.
Isonhood was to suffer post traumatic stress disorder as a result: she experienced anger, depression and anxiety. Before his execution at Mississippi State Penitentiary she befriended Wilcher to ask for his forgiveness, which was freely given.
Isonhood has discovered that some of her fellow jurors were similarly burdened. Her experience has alerted her to the “ripples of sorrow” radiating from the death penalty, which can affect everyone it touches. She now opposes the death penalty because of this.
We commend Isonhood for her efforts this year in raising public awareness about the insidious impact of the death penalty. Far too many people are damaged by it. It is time for it to end.
Jamie Patterson, Isonhood Lives with the Regret of Sending Man to his Death, The Yazoo Herald, July 16, 2018.
Lindy Isonhood, The Unseen Anguish of a Death Sentence, Medium, July 2, 2018.
Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2 Trailer, Human Rights Watch, June 9, 2017.
In the event, the prosecution used pressurized and incentivized witnesses to convince the jury that Willie was guilty. The case moved inexorably to the penalty phase, where Burdine’s lack of preparation became only too apparent. Willie was sentenced to death.
Clearly at the penalty phase of Willie’s trial his counsel’s assistance was ineffective. Clearly Willie should be allowed to present this claim to a court.
We trust he can do this soon.
[i] From Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington, The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist, published March 2018.
[ii] Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Page 87 (page 95 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.
[iii] Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Page 95 (page 103 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.
[iv] Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Page 87 (page 95 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.
[v] Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. Pages 85 – 86 (pages 93 – 94 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.
[vi] Willie Jerome Manning v. State of Mississippi, No. 2001-0144-CV, Petition for Post-Conviction Relief, filed in the Circuit Court for Oktibbeha County. Filed October 8, 2001. 86 (page 94 of pdf). State of Mississippi Judiciary. Web. June 29, 2015.

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