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.

Citation Guide