The Mississippi Supreme Court has delayed setting a new execution date for convicted murderer Willie Jerome Manning until a defense motion for post-conviction relief is resolved.
The court issued its order Thursday granting the delay.
Manning was convicted in 1994 of the murders of Mississippi State University students Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler. He was sentenced to death in both murders.
In December 1992 Manning allegedly shot Steckler and ran over him with Miller’s car, then raped and murdered Miller.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office filed a motion on Nov. 9 asking the court to lift a stay of execution granted in 2013 hours before Manning was set to die. The motion asks the court to set a new execution date and to dismiss the defense’s second motion for post-conviction relief.
That stay of execution was to give the defense time to test DNA evidence and perform other forensic analysis, the state argued. The test results were inconclusive, and the United States Supreme Court has since declined to hear an appeal of the case.
“The court only stayed Manning’s execution so that he could pursue DNA testing and fingerprint analysis …,” the government wrote. “The completion of that testing and the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial (of review) necessarily means Manning’s state and federal remedies are exhausted once again.”
The state also argues Manning’s request for relief is unlawful, and the state supreme court is required to “… fix a day, not more than 30 days distant from the date of (PCR denial) for the execution of the sentence.”
The government argues Manning’s request for PCR is a “blatant attempt to delay his lawful execution.”
Defense claims new evidence has come to light
The defense, in a motion filed Nov. 13, argues that new evidence undermines the case against Manning and must be weighed before any decision on execution can be made.
In a Sept. 29 filing, the defense alleged several critical components of the case against Manning were crumbling. First, Earl Jordan, a jailhouse informant who testified Manning confessed to him, recanted his testimony.
“Jordan explained he testified falsely to get favorable treatment on charges pending against him,” the defense wrote. “… Jordan also noted he did not previously recant because he was afraid of the sheriff.”
Another key witness, Henry Richardson, has also claimed that he and Manning never discussed details of the crime, despite previous testimony to the contrary, the state wrote.
“New available evidence, such as the affidavits from Jordan and Richardson, is sufficient to overcome bars to filing successive petitions,” the defense wrote. “Manning should be entitled to at least an evidentiary hearing based on Jordan’s sworn recantation.”
The defense also argues ballistic evidence needs to be reassessed because it has since been discredited by scientific advances.
At trial, evidence included slugs dug from a tree in Manning’s yard that were forensically linked to the murder weapon.
The defense, finally, claims the state’s argument the court should set an execution date is wrong.
“If a petitioner has exhausted all avenues of relief and no litigation is pending, then this court may set an execution date,” the defense wrote. “If, however, a petitioner is seeking relief, the court need not set a date, especially if a pending petition contains ‘a substantial showing of merit.’”
New evidence shows Manning’s trial was “undermined by substantial constitutional violations,” the defense wrote.
The defense brings up another case in which Manning was also sentenced to death. Manning was convicted and sentenced to death in a separate trial for the 1993 murders of Emmoline Jimmerson and her daughter, Albertha Jordan. Those charges were dropped in 2015 after a jailhouse informant recanted his testimony and the court discovered that exculpatory evidence had been withheld by investigators.
In the Miller/Stickler murders, “… Manning has shown that many of the same officials bargaining with desperate informants again resulted in a trial marred by false testimony.”
The state has yet to respond to the defense’s motion for PCR. Once it does, the court will rule on whether to allow further litigation.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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