JACKSON, Madam. — The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied the final appeal of a man who… Sentenced to death for 30 years after he was convicted of the murder of two students.
The decision could clear the way for the state to set an execution date for Willie Jerome Manningbut his attorney said Tuesday that his legal team will request a new hearing.
The court’s majority wrote in a 5-4 ruling Monday that Manning “has had his days in court.” Justices who dissented wrote that a court must hold a hearing for a witness who wants to recant his testimony against Manning, 56. Manning has spent more than half his life in prison.
Manning’s attorneys have filed multiple appeals since he was convicted in 1994 on two counts of first-degree murder in the December 1992 killings of Mississippi State University students Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller. Their bodies were found in rural Oktibbeha County, and Miller’s car was missing. The car was found the next morning. Prosecutors say Manning was arrested after he tried to sell items belonging to the victims.
Krissy Nobile, Manning’s attorney and director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, said Tuesday that the justices’ majority ruling “ignores newly discovered evidence by retracting the statements of several key witnesses,” including one who said in a sworn statement that she was paid $17,500 for fraudulent testimony.
“With the witness statements and the forensic science that has been debunked, there is no evidence against Mr. Manning,” Nobile said. “There is no DNA, fibers, fingerprints or other physical evidence that links Mr. Manning to the murders or the victims.”
Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote the majority opinion denying Manning’s request for a hearing before the district court to determine whether witness Earl Jordan had lied.
“Plaintiff has had more than a full measure of justice,” Randolph wrote of Manning. “Not Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler. Not their families. Not the citizens of Mississippi. Final justice is paramount in every case.”
Nobile replied, “What justice is served by putting the wrong man to death?”
Judge James Kitchens wrote the dissenting opinion.
“Today, the Court perverts its function as a court of appeals and makes findings of fact that are entirely within the purview of a district court judge,” Kitchens wrote.
The Mississippi Supreme Court held decades ago that when a witness recants his testimony, “the defendant/petitioner is entitled to a hearing to determine whether the witness lied at trial or in his sworn statement,” Kitchens wrote.
Manning has maintained his innocence and has asked for the evidence in his case to be reexamined.
The final appeal was based in part on Jordan’s statement that he wanted to recant his testimony. He stated that while he and Manning were in jail together in Oktibbeha County, Manning had confessed to killing Steckler and Miller.
Jordan said in a sworn statement that he gave false testimony against Manning in hopes of receiving favorable treatment from Dolph Bryan, then sheriff of Oktibbeha County. Jordan wrote that he was “afraid to tell the truth” when Bryan was sheriff. Bryan left the job in January 2012.
In 2013, shortly before Manning was to be executed, the U.S. Justice Department said there were errors in FBI agents’ testimony about ballistics tests and hair analysis in the case. Manning’s lawyers asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to halt the lethal injection, and the justices voted 8-1 to do so. postpone the execution to enable the testing of evidence.
Manning’s attorneys asked an Oktibbeha County judge for permission to send items to a more specialized lab. The judge denied that request, and the ruling was affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court until 2022.