Willie Jerome Manning

Jon Steckler, 19, and Tiffany Miller, 22, two students at Mississippi State University in Starkville were, according to prosecutors, forced into Miller's car[1] from the street in front of Steckler's fraternity house on December 11, 1992. About an hour later, a motorist found Steckler shot in the back of the head and left for dead by the side of a road just outside Starkville,[2] having been run over by Miller's car, a Toyota MR2.[3] When law enforcement officers arrived, they found Miller's body in nearby woods. She had been shot twice, in the forehead and mouth.[4] The evidence suggested that she had been sexually assaulted.[5] Steckler died shortly thereafter. In the morning, Miller's car was found near the MSU campus.[6]

Jon Stephen Steckler was a sophomore majoring in forest resources. He was an athlete who played high school football for Cathedral High School and a practicing Catholic who served in the mission field in Mexico. He was also an outdoorsman and hunter.[7] Pamela Tiffany Miller was a third-year sophomore (having taken a year off) from Madison, Mississippi and studying nursing.[8]

On the morning of the murders, one of Steckler's fraternity brothers, John Wise, found his car had been burglarized. Prosecutors said the two students had interrupted the burglary.[9] One of the items stolen was a gas station token.[10] A very similar token was found at the scene of the killings.[11] Also stolen was a black leather bomber jacket that was later recovered from Manning's girlfriend who testified at trial that Manning had given it to her; and a portable CD player, which was traced by its serial number from Wise to a pawn shop in Jackson. The person who pawned it, Gaylon Hall, testified that he obtained it from Manning.[12]

Prosecutors said that Manning had a record of convictions for theft and other crimes and had recently been paroled:[13] he was convicted on September 5, 1991 for grand larceny and on April 20, 1992 for burglary of a dwelling.[14] The trial of Manning included testimony that he possessed and also tried to sell items stolen from the Wise burglary.[15] Manning's girlfriend, who testified to Manning's possession of the stolen property, also testified that Manning had been using a tree for target practice. According to an F.B.I. firearms expert, slugs recovered from the tree were fired from the same gun used to kill Steckler and Miller.[16] Ginger Wallace testified that she saw Manning wearing a leather jacket and in possession of a gold class ring and a watch similar to Steckler's.[17]

In his defense, Manning said that he did not commit the murders, and that he was at a club on the night of the murders.[18] He argued that Jesse James "One-Wing" Lawrence had committed the murders, but Lawrence was in jail in Alabama at the time.[19] One witness, Manning's cousin, changed his story several times: he had earlier implicated two other men, but then stated that Manning had confessed to committing the murders with another man.

Manning stated that the property he was selling was stolen by someone he did not know.[20]

Manning was convicted of the murders of Steckler and Miller after a jury trial; the jury deliberated for one hour.[21] Manning was sentenced to death on November 8, 1994, after the jury decided Manning's crime was "heinous, atrocious, and cruel." [22]

Manning claimed that he should have DNA testing, using technology that was not available at the time of his trial.[23] He pointed out that multiple fingerprints found in Miller's car matched neither him nor the two victims.[24]

Manning said that at his trial the prosecutor, Forrest Allgood, illegally dismissed as potential jurors African Americans who read African American magazines, on the grounds that these were liberal publications.[25]

Manning also argued that witnesses against him in the Steckler-Miller murders gave conflicting testimony and multiple versions of testimony,[26] and that some of the trial witness testimony contradicted known facts.[27] He said that his cousin made several different statements, earlier implicating two different men, but later stating that Manning confessed that he and a second man committed the murders.[28]

Manning's lawyers also contended that Manning's former girlfriend, a key witness, was granted a favorable plea deal on fraud charges, in addition to almost $18,000, to reward her for testifying for the prosecution, arrangements which were not fully disclosed to the trial jury.[29] Manning's lawyers alleged that she also tried to implicate Manning when she asked him leading questions that were secretly recorded by officials and not disclosed to defense attorneys."[30]

In a 5-4 ruling on April 25, 2013, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied his claims.[31]

On 30 April 2013, the Mississippi Innocence Project filed a brief supporting Manning.[32]

Manning was asking that evidence of possible rape of Miller be reexamined, together with fingernail scrapings, hairs and fingerprint evidence.[33] A rape kit, and other physical evidence analyzed soon after the murders, had tested negative for biological residue suitable for DNA testing. The Innocence Project countered that modern testing can reveal biological evidence undetected by earlier methods; and DNA testing had exonerated even prisoners with seemingly strong evidence against them.[34] Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice added that physical evidence from the murder scene (including hair from both victims' hands, scrapings from under their nails, and hair fragments from the car) would probably identify the murderer.[35] Similarly, one of the dissenting judges, Justice James W. Kitchens, wrote "whatever potential harm the denial seeks to avert is surely outweighed by the benefits of ensuring justice by the scientific analysis of all the trace evidence."[36]

The Justice Department scrutinized Manning's case as part of a wider review of the FBI's analysis of scientific evidence in thousands of violent crimes in the 1980s and 1990s; this review was intended to correct errors in forensic hair examinations before 2000."[37]

On May 3, 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation advised Mississippi officials that an examiner had overstated conclusions about the hair by suggesting it came from an African-American source. (Manning is African-American.) "We have determined that the microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony or laboratory report presented in this case included statements that exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid," the letter said. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood responded, "The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that the evidence is so overwhelming as to Manning's guilt [that] even if technologies were available to determine the source of the hair, to indicate someone other than Manning, it would not negate other evidence that shows his guilt."

Two of the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice letters, sent shortly before Manning's scheduled execution, addressed issues arising from FBI expert hair testimony at Manning's trial. One letter stated that an FBI examiner had misrepresented his findings about hair fibers,[38] found in Miller's car, when he concluded that the hair came from an African American. The two victims were white, but Manning is black. This hair sample was the only physical evidence that connected Manning to the murder scene. The authorities stated, "We have determined that the microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony or laboratory report presented in this case included statements that exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid."[39]

The third Department of Justice letter focused on ballistics testimony at the trial. A witness, Manning's former girlfriend, said she had once seen Manning firing a gun into a tree. The F.B.I. firearms expert testified that bullets found in the tree had been fired from the same gun as the bullets used in the murders. However, this testimony was later discredited. The Department of Justice letter stated: "The science regarding firearms examinations does not permit examiner testimony that a specific gun fired a specific bullet to the exclusion of all other guns in the world. The examiner could testify to that information, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, but not absolutely.[40] He added, "As with any process involving human judgment, claims of infallibility or impossibility of error are not supported by scientific standards."[41]

Approximately four hours before the scheduled time of execution on May 7, 2013, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to grant Manning a stay of execution. The judges gave no reason for this decision.[42]

On July 25, 2013, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed its earlier 5-4 ruling preventing the testing of the fingerprints and DNA evidence. The new ruling, which was unanimous, gave Manning 60 days to file a brief requesting analysis of both.[43]

Miller's mother Pamela Cole told a reporter that Manning's death would bring her peace. "It's just 21 years late," she said. "Not a day goes by that I realize what I would have missed, all because of this one joker that decided he was going to play God one night."[44]

Manning's lawyers stated, "A finding by the circuit court that Manning's conviction in the Brooksville Gardens case [Jimmerson-Jordan murders] was procured on the basis of false testimony would also be relevant to the claims in this case (the college students), because it would show a pattern of reliance on testimony procured unfairly.".[45]

Tucker Carrington, director of the Mississippi Innocence Project, commented, "In my mind, the state had written Willie off,… Who gives a fuck about this guy? He's already condemned."[46]

On the evening of January 18, 1993, Martin Luther King Day, about five weeks after the Steckler-Miller double murder,[47] 90-year-old Emmoline Jimmerson and her 60-year-old daughter, Albertha Jordan, were murdered during an attempted robbery at their apartment in Starkville. The victims were beaten and their throats slashed.[48] The coroner testified that both women were beaten on their heads and chests with an iron so severely that those wounds would have been fatal even if their throats hadn't been slashed with a kitchen knife at least ten minutes after the iron attack.[49]

The state's key witness, Kevin Lucious (who has been serving two life sentences without parole in St. Louis, Missouri, since the mid-1990s, for murder convictions there),[50] testified that he saw Manning enter the Jimmerson-Jordan apartment on the night of the murders. Lucious also testified that Manning later told him that he wouldn't have done it if he'd known they only had $12. He testified that Manning said, "it wasn't anything to kill someone and sometimes you have to kill someone in order to get the respect you deserve."[51] Manning told police he had not been at the apartment complex on MLK Day, but in addition to Lucious, five other eyewitnesses placed him there, including Herbert Ashford, who not only saw Manning in the vicinity of the apartments on MLK Day, but also testified that Manning later said he should have done more violence to the victims than he did[52] (however, according to the prosecutor Lucious was the only witness to say he heard Manning admit the crime).[53]

Lucious was the only eyewitness to testify that he saw Manning enter the women's home. No witnesses said they saw Manning leave that apartment.[54]

Manning alleged that Jimmerson's son James Lee Jimmerson committed the murders and presented evidence that Jimmerson had persuaded his girlfriend to provide a false alibi for the time of the murders. The prosecution presented other witnesses establishing that Jimmerson was in fact elsewhere during the murders. After a jury trial, and deliberations lasting three hours and twelve minutes,[55] Manning was convicted of the murders of Jimmerson and Jordan on July 24, 1996. The jury sentenced Manning to death.[56]

In 2000, after the county court determined there had been no Batson violation, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence. Manning then pursued another review by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The court in 2004 granted Manning leave "to seek post-conviction relief at an evidentiary hearing in the trial court on the issues of whether the State withheld exculpatory evidence, whether the State presented false evidence and whether Manning was denied effective assistance of counsel both at trial and on appeal," but otherwise upheld his conviction and death sentence.[57]

Lucious formally recanted his testimony in 2011. He also filed affidavits stating that his statements given to authorities and his testimony at Manning's 1996 trial were false, and coerced by authorities because he was afraid he would be charged with the murders. He said that law enforcement produced the information for him to use when testifying.[58] He added that he had told police that someone different had confessed to the murders.[59]

On February 12, 2015, the Mississippi Supreme Court by a vote of 7-2 granted Manning a new trial in the Jimmerson-Jordan murders, holding that prosecutors had withheld potentially exculpatory information from the defense.[60] The Court said when Starkville police knocked on doors at the complex they found that the apartment where Lucious claimed to live was in fact vacant when the crime occurred;[61] they also showed that neither Lucious nor his girlfriend were resident in any of the apartments canvassed. The court said police withheld this information from both the district attorney's office and Manning's defense attorneys.

For the majority Justice Randolph wrote: "[T]he State violated Manning's due-process rights by failing to provide favorable, material evidence." He added "There is no question that defense counsel would have had the opportunity to meaningfully impeach Lucious's testimony that he lived in the apartment at the time of the crime and saw Manning enter the victims' apartment. Any attorney worth his salt would salivate at impeaching the State's key witness using evidence obtained by the Starkville Police Department."[62]

The charges against Manning were dropped on April 21, 2015.[63] The Death Penalty Information Center's 2015 annual survey lists Manning as one of the six death row exonerees in 2015.[64]