Opinion ID: 29418
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: A jury convicted Conner of capital murder

Text: The Mississippi Supreme Court stated the based on overwhelming testimony and evifacts of this case in detail on Conner’s direct dence. A friend of Conner’s witnessed him abappeal. Conner v. State, 632 So. 2d 1239, duct Brown shortly after Conner said he need1243-47 (Miss. 1993). We review these facts ed to rob someone to get some cash; forensic briefly here. evidence connected him to the murder. Conner also displayed Brown’s ring to several At the time of the murder, Conner, a man acquaintances to obtain their estimates of the of modest intelligence and less worldly suc- its value. Finally, he confessed, in the prescess, was thirty-one years old. He had an IQ ence of three other people, to murdering in the mid- to low seventies and had never held Brown. He relied on an alibi defense based on a steady job. He drank often and used mar- testimony that, on cross-examination, proved ihuana and crack cocaine. He was diagnosed to be either not credible or not inconsistent in the 1980’s with schizophrenia and unspeci- with the state’s evidence. fied personality disorders. At the sentencing phase of the trial, the On January 1, 1990, Conner declared that state re-introduced all evidence from the guilt “I am out to get my revenge because I am tired phase and a record of Conner’s conviction of of sitting around and waiting on people to give robbery. The state presented no additional me mine, so I am going to start getting mine.” witnesses. Conner’s trial counsel also relied He apparently decided to “get his” by kidnap- on the guilt-phase evidence, which included ing and brutally murdering Celeste Brown, an Conner’s medical records, and presented two elderly woman. When Brown arrived by car at additional witnesses. a train station, Conner abducted her at knife First, Conner’s sister Dorothy testified that Conner had been treated for mental illness at