UPDATE: Execution stayed by Mississippi Supreme Court. Since 1994, Willie Manning, an inmate on Mississippi​’s death row, has been request­ing DNA test­ing of crit­i­cal evi­dence recov­ered from the crime scene of the mur­ders that led to his con­vic­tion. Manning’s con­vic­tion was based main­ly on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence. In April the Mississippi Supreme Court nar­row­ly (5 – 4) denied the DNA test­ing being request­ed. Earlier, the same Court had over­turned Manning’s con­vic­tion because his lawyers were not allowed to ful­ly cross-exam­ine the infor­mant in the case, but the Court recon­sid­ered its deci­sion and let the con­vic­tion stand. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of the New York-based Innocence Project strong­ly sup­port­ed the test­ing in an op-ed in the Clarion Ledger: ​“While peo­ple can dif­fer on whether the death penal­ty is an appro­pri­ate form of pun­ish­ment, near­ly every­one would agree that it should be used only in those cas­es where we are cer­tain of guilt. DNA test­ing could pro­vide that cer­tain­ty or prove, as Manning insists, that he is inno­cent.” Manning’s lawyers have asked Governor Phil Bryant to issue a stay and order the test­ing. He is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on May 7.

(B. Scheck and P. Neufeld, ​“Death row inmate deserves DNA test­ing before May 7 exe­cu­tion,” Clarion Ledger, May 1, 2013; see also A. Cohen, ​“A Ghost of Mississippi,” Atlantic, May 2, 2013). See Innocence.

Citation Guide