Willie Manning has been convicted and sentenced to death in Mississippi twice– for two separate double homicides. But- from there- things got complicated pretty quickly.
There were substantial evidentiary issues with one of the convictions. Manning’s attorneys were able to get it thrown out and the state dropped those charges.
The other conviction still stands, though– and the state still wants to execute Manning. But there are problems with this case too. Years after the case, the Justice Department and the FBI sent prosecutors a letter about the testimony given at the trial by their scientific experts. They said that the testimony had gone too far, that it had “exceeded the limits of science and were, therefore, invalid.”
But, again, the conviction still stands and the state of Mississippi still wants to execute Manning.
So what exactly is going on here? To help us try to figure it out, we spoke with some attorneys from the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel who are working on Manning’s case. They’ll discuss the details of both cases, why he was convicted, what they see as the problems with those convictions and what exactly they think should happen next.
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[00:00:24] Plus, every bra is designed with the comfiest and softest materials, convicted and sentenced to death in Mississippi twice for two separate double homicides. But from there, things got complicated pretty quickly. There were substantial evidentiary issues with one of the convictions. Manning's attorneys were able to get it thrown out and the state dropped those charges.
[00:01:42] The other conviction still stands though, and what exactly they think should happen next. My name is Anya Kane, I'm a journalist. And I'm Kevin Greenley, I'm an attorney. And this is the Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews, and deep dives into
[00:03:01] murder cases.
[00:03:02] We're the Murder Sheet. I'm David Voixen, attorney now in Louisiana, but I've been representing Willie Manning since around 2000. I'm right. I think I'm in Jackson, Mississippi. I was first appointed to represent Mr. Manning in about 2000. I have it's a little bit different than what you normally hear about, maybe on TV or TV series about how to feel where you're going up and you're just reviewing law that was made in the trial court. In post- year old daughter, Elbirtha Jordan? Yeah, that happened on Martin Luther King Day of 1993. To put the give you the timing sequence, the murders of the students. They didn't have any like DNA or fiber or fingerprints or anything like that. Mr. Lucius told law enforcement that he had been talking to Manning, and Manning said he needed money.
[00:08:22] And then Lucius said he went back to his own apartment,
[00:08:26] which was across the street It was all false because they didn't even move into that apartment until two weeks after the murders took place. The murders took place around January 18 or so, and they did not move until February 1st. So we also subpoenaed the records from that housing complex.
[00:09:40] And sure enough, the lease that they were threatening her. And at the same time offering her some money, not a whole lot, but $20 here and there. But she didn't testify against it. So all this came out of the post-conviction hearing. The other thing that came out to that trial, they were testimony about a bloody footprint that
[00:11:01] was found near the victim's body.
[00:11:05] That trial, the knew it was, he was a flawed witness, you know? He testified that there was nothing to cross-examine him with. Nothing like a lease to confront him with. And so without that, there was no reason
[00:12:20] to buy his girlfriend or understand nothing like that.
[00:12:24] And so, you know, and some people might say, well, what about other evidence? But it's not not unusual. In another case, I should mention as Curtis Flowers, it had received a lot of attention
[00:15:03] a couple of years ago because the U. a feeling of being decompressed and ready to tackle whatever is next. I'll play anywhere at any time. It's a fun activity to do before going to bed or even just after waking up. It's great to play while sitting around waiting for a source to call back.
[00:16:20] It's a really nice mood booster that encourages me to take breaks during the day.
[00:16:24] June needs your help, detective. that the case had gone unsolved for so long and there were dozens of potential alibi witnesses, character witnesses, mitigation witnesses, forensic issues, all sorts of stuff. And he was trying to do all of avoid doing a long sentence, there's a lot of pressure to do that. Yeah, I'm here you had, I mean, you did have desperate witnesses who were highly incentivized, which happens in many, many cases.
[00:19:01] Here's a pretty good example of witnesses that receive
[00:19:04] not just help with their own cases, campus and they went out to Tiffany's car and they were going to drive off and they came upon the legibly came upon really manning, breaking into someone else's car. Manning was taking a number of items from his car, gathered them up and they took John and Tiffany at gunpoint,
[00:21:26] Mississippi that was found at the murder scene and the person whose car was broken into
[00:21:32] recognized that token. That's why they linked the two. They said that's why whoever
[00:21:38] did the car burglary must have then kidnapped the victim. Although they didn't really have any
[00:21:44] clear evidence that a kid actually kidnapping took, and Jordan was kind of left out, but then eventually, Jordan found himself in jail, found himself in a cell with Willy Manning, and part of the state's case. And of course, there were also some issues of fairness of the process that arose even before the trial itself actually began. Manning, of course, is an African-American male.
[00:24:21] And it was reported that some African espoused his innocence. He was covered a lot, you know, but you know, sometimes it was just factual crime recording. Sometimes it is about in the context of domestic violence and things like that. There's never a position about Simpson certainly being innocent. So this is
[00:25:43] made up based on racial stereotypes. And they went away too.
[00:27:00] And she got a big, like a cry of stoppers reward.
[00:27:04] And we also found, this was a clear Brady violation, So that came out. There was another guy, Frank Parker, who testified against Mr. Manning. Parker is a really interesting person. He is from Texas and he happened to be in Starkville and was arrested and he justified that he overheard Manning
[00:28:22] talking to this other inmate named Miami and it, you know, Manning was talking in president in Florida and he gave us Florida and affidavit saying that conversation never happened he just talked about to other people that their trumpers that just didn't have so that that goes by the wayside said everything about the state's case that's been crumbling over the years there's a couple one other thing i don't know
[00:31:01] you know this is necessarily all you know, timeline five and finally the local judge ignored the qualified lawyer's request to be appointed, been appointed. Another local attorney
[00:35:00] immediately filed a motion to get off saying, I didn't happen. And he paid the price. He didn't get federal review. And so all the claims we had developed before then, you know, were not heard in federal court when we came to 2013 when we saw DNA testing. And this is also when the FBI got involved of some of the forensics on this. What can you tell us about the hair evidence in this case? Yeah, the law enforcement did a process that the scene, especially the car, the Japanese car, especially since, according to the state's theory, forensic practice and then issue a letter saying that it's beyond the capacity of science, why you have to find the race of someone by the hair, that just doesn't happen and the the profile or not until they actually try. And so we said, look, let's send it to the specialized lab, which has a success rate of like 90% and in the court says, no, you've had your chance at DNA testing in any event. There's a lot of other
[00:36:20] evidence to support manning conviction. And they this over the last 10 years and they draw up something for me conclusions. But mainly you can't make these comparisons at all. What's that
[00:37:43] right, Chrissy? That's right. So our expert kind of looked at these
[00:38:46] to. So basically what you can say is that, you know, think about a Ruger that this kind of will look came from this Ruger, but not from this particular Ruger. And so science
[00:38:51] has continued to develop since 2013. Our ex-doc who is the former FBI officer, you know,
[00:38:59] calls it kind of like a bigger quote unquote paradigm shift bullets in the world. And that is false evidence. You work shortly, the FBI came forward in 2013 and now you just have a more of a paradigm shift showing that. So I guess the obvious question is, how can a conviction stand or be defended
[00:40:21] if it's based on expert testimony
[00:40:23] that the Justice Department has said in writing
[00:40:27] that they no longer stand behind? We know that the ballistics adds nothing to the case. What do you have? There's nothing. Just some very strange, unusual fact pattern that no one's satisfactorily explained. So given the problems you've identified with the witness testimony, given the problems with the hair and the ballistics evidence, what remedy do you all feel would be appropriate
[00:41:44] for manning in this situation? premature say to lease that this new new evidence has come to light and by law it should be considered in the state takes this position that there should be no right to have a second bite at the apple if you come up with new evidence that it's too late you've had your one shot you lost go away it's it's time to carry
[00:43:00] out a prejudgment but fortunately the law actually provides otherwise it I mean, jail has informants are a big, big problem. And it's because they're facing so much time and there's so much pressure on them that you know, you, you, you, you, you, people are going to get, well, they're going to look out for themselves, cooperate to reduce their own charges.
[00:44:21] Do you, in a situation where you have to start relying it right. And cases like this are not done right. And again, this is not an anomaly. This is just a spotlighted example. We'd like to sincerely thank Chrissy, David, and Rob, as well as John for their time and insights on these cases.
[00:45:45] Thanks so much for listening to the murder sheet.