EDITORIALS: Mississippi Paper Calls Pending Execution ​“Gravely Inhumane”

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Jackson Free Press in Mississippi called for a halt to the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Michelle Byrom, say­ing she is ​“clear­ly not guilty of the crime for which the state plans to exe­cute her next week.” The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed that Byrom’s son had con­fessed to the crime four times.” He said the sto­ry he orig­i­nal­ly told sher­iffs impli­cat­ing his moth­er was made up because he was ​“scared, con­fused and high” when he was inter­ro­gat­ed. The paper point­ed to mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence about Byrom that could have been con­sid­ered by a sen­tenc­ing jury: ​“Byrom suf­fered a life­time of abuse that had a jury heard about it could have been suf­fi­cient­ly mit­i­gat­ing for her to receive life impris­on­ment rather than death for the cap­i­tal offense of mur­der-for-hire.” The edi­tors con­clud­ed: ​“It would be grave­ly inhu­mane to exe­cute a woman as men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly ill as Michelle Byrom — and a fright­en­ing con­trast to all the bru­tal woman-killers that pre­vi­ous Gov. Haley Barbour pardoned.…To exe­cute Michelle Byrom for a crime that she did not com­mit would be one of the worst mis­car­riages of jus­tices in mod­ern Mississippi his­to­ry. This exe­cu­tion must not hap­pen.” Read the full editorial below.

Stop the Execution of Michelle Byrom

Michelle Byrom is clear­ly not guilty of the crime for which the state plans to exe­cute her next week.

We say this not out of moral oppo­si­tion to the cru­el and unusu­al nature — although it is — of the way the death penal­ty is admin­is­tered in this coun­try, nor are we quib­bling over the tech­ni­cal minu­ti­ae of Byrom’s case.

As Ronni Mott reports this week (see: ​“Justice Subverted?” on page 10), Byrom was arrest­ed and con­vict­ed for orches­trat­ing the June 1999 mur­der of her hus­band Edward Byrom Sr. Prosecutors in Tishomingo County argued at Byrom’s tri­al that she hired a man named Joey Gillis to kill Edward Sr.

Up until that point, Byrom suf­fered a life­time of abuse that had a jury heard about it could have been suf­fi­cient­ly mit­i­gat­ing for her to receive life impris­on­ment rather than death for the cap­i­tal offense of murder-for-hire.

The most glar­ing fault with her con­vic­tion is that the evi­dence rais­es seri­ous doubt that Michelle Byrom hired Joey Gillis or that Gillis killed Edward Sr. In fact, Michelle and Edward Sr.‘s son, Junior, has con­fessed more than once in let­ters to killing his father — let­ters the jury never saw.

Early on, Junior had told the Tishomingo County sher­iff about an elab­o­rate plot involv­ing his moth­er, but Junior said he was ​“scared, con­fused and high” dur­ing the interview.

Later, Junior recant­ed those state­ments through let­ters to his moth­er and to a court-appoint­ed psy­chol­o­gist. In one let­ter to Michelle, Junior said after his father belit­tled him as a ​“bas­tard” and ​“no good mis­take,” Junior retrieved his father’s pis­tol, crept into the room as Edward Sr. slept, and fired.

Junior made four known con­fes­sions; but on the stand, he stuck to the sto­ry he orig­i­nal­ly told sher­iffs — that Gillis was the killer, and Michelle Byrom had hired Gillis for the hit. A jury found her guilty, and a judge sen­tenced her to death.

Despite those case prob­lems, Mississippi’s Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood has sched­uled Michelle Byrom’s exe­cu­tion for March 27. Another man, Charles Ray Crawford, is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed March 26. The state prefers to group exe­cu­tions togeth­er to min­i­mize the costs; each exe­cu­tion costs tax­pay­ers approx­i­mate­ly $11,000.

We can­not ignore the irony that these exe­cu­tions come as a com­pre­hen­sive prison-reform pack­age heads to the desk of Gov. Phil Bryant, which is expect­ed to sign. The leg­is­la­tion aims to keep peo­ple out of prison who do not belong there.

Today, both Gillis, the accused shoot­er, and Junior, who con­fessed to the shoot­ing, are out of prison as Michelle Byrom lan­guish­es in prison and her health con­tin­ues to spiral downward.

It would be grave­ly inhu­mane to exe­cute a woman as men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly ill as Michelle Byrom — and a fright­en­ing con­trast to all the bru­tal woman-killers that pre­vi­ous Gov. Haley Barbour par­doned, a sto­ry revealed to Mississippians for the first time in 2008 by Ronni Mott.

To exe­cute Michelle Byrom for a crime that she did not com­mit would be one of the worst mis­car­riages of jus­tices in mod­ern Mississippi his­to­ry. This exe­cu­tion must not happen.

(Editorial, ​“Stop the Execution of Michelle Byrom,” Jackson Free Press, March 19, 2014). See Editorials, Arbitrariness, and Women.