Michelle Byrom is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Mississippi on March 27 for con­spir­ing to mur­der her hus­band, Edward Byrom, Sr. Her son, Edward Byrom, Jr., known as Junior, con­fessed to the crime on mul­ti­ple occa­sions, and wrote that he lied when he told police his moth­er and a friend were involved. ​“I was so scared, con­fused, and high, I just start­ed spit­ting the first thought out, which turned in to this big con­spir­a­cy thing, for mon­ey, which was all BS, that’s why I had so many dif­fer­ent sto­ries,” he wrote. Junior tes­ti­fied against his moth­er in exchange for a reduced sen­tence and is now out of prison. Michelle Byrom was abused by her step­fa­ther, ran away from home at age 15, and moved in with Edward, Sr., that same year, when he was 31. He ver­bal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly abused her and threat­ened vio­lence if she tried to leave. A foren­sic psy­chi­a­trist diag­nosed Michelle with bor­der­line per­son­al­i­ty dis­or­der, depres­sion, alco­holism, and Münchausen syn­drome, say­ing the dis­or­ders were con­sis­tent with abuse. She was inter­ro­gat­ed while in the hos­pi­tal under the influ­ence of 12 dif­fer­ent med­ica­tions, and only con­fessed when the Sheriff told her about her son’s con­fes­sion and encour­aged her not to let her son ​“take the rap.” Her tri­al attor­neys, try­ing their first cap­i­tal case, waived her right to have a jury decide her sen­tence, believ­ing that would give them grounds for an appeal. They did not present evi­dence of her men­tal ill­ness­es, think­ing that evi­dence would be bet­ter saved for the appeal. The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld her con­vic­tion and sen­tence (5 – 3), with Justice Jess Dickinson writ­ing in dis­sent, ​“I have attempt­ed to con­jure up in my imag­i­na­tion a more egre­gious case of inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing phase of a cap­i­tal case. I can­not.” UPDATE: Read Andrew Cohen’s piece about this case The Atlantic.

A new appeal, cen­tered on Junior’s con­fes­sion, which was nev­er pre­sent­ed to the jury, is now before the state Supreme Court. The ​“friend,” Joey Gillis, whom Michelle alleged­ly paid to do the killing, pled guilty to con­spir­a­cy to mur­der and was released from prison in 2009. If Byrom is exe­cut­ed, she will be the first woman exe­cut­ed in Mississippi in 70 years.

(R. Mott, ​“An Innocent Woman? Michelle Byrom vs. Mississippi,” Jackson Free Press, March 19, 2014). See Innocence, Mental Illness, and Arbitrariness.

Citation Guide