Michelle Byrom (pictured, seated) was released from prison in Mississippi on June 26 after spending 16 years behind bars, 14 of them on death row, for the murder of her husband. Byrom maintains her innocence for the crime, but agreed to an Alford plea — which means that she pleaded no contest to the charges against her — in exchange for her release. In 2014, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed Byrom’s conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial, citing numerous problems in her case. Byrom’s attorneys failed to present any mitigating evidence, and the jury was never told that Byrom’s son, Junior, had confessed to killing his father. Junior initially told police that his mother had hired someone to kill his father, but later wrote in a letter, “You are all I have, and they’re trying to take that away from me now, but Mom I’m gonna tell you right now who killed Dad ‘cause I’m sick and tired of all the lies. I did, and it wasn’t for money, it wasn’t for all the abuse — it was because I can’t kill myself.” Junior pleaded guilty to conspiring in the murder, was sentenced to 30 years, and received a supervised release in 2013. John White, one of Byrom’s attorneys, said of her release, “It’s been a long arduous journey. The outcome is appropriate, given the history of the case.”
(J. Mitchell, “Almost executed by Mississippi, Michelle Byrom free,” Clarion-Ledger, June 26, 2015.) See Innocence and Women.
