UPDATE: Winfield’s exe­cu­tion was stayed on June 12 because of state inter­fer­ence with the clemen­cy process. EARLIER: John Winfield is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Missouri on June 18 despite an affi­davit sub­mit­ted by one of the jurors at his tri­al stat­ing she was pres­sured to switch her sen­tenc­ing vote from life in prison to death. Kimberly Turner, who served on Winfield’s jury in 1998, recent­ly described the jury’s ini­tial delib­er­a­tions: ​“Another juror and I had vot­ed for life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. That was my vote. In my heart, that has always been my vote.” In Missouri, a jury rec­om­men­da­tion for death must be unan­i­mous; if just one juror votes for a life sen­tence, the defen­dant is sen­tenced to life. When the jury told the court they were unable to reach a unan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing ver­dict, they were told to con­tin­ue delib­er­at­ing. ​“Even though I had vot­ed for life with­out parole,” Turner said, ​“when an offi­cer of the Court told me to keep delib­er­at­ing, I thought that I had to. It was Friday after­noon and the oth­er jurors were tired of being sequestered and want­ed to go home. They were pres­sur­ing me and the oth­er life vote to change our votes to death…As the after­noon went on, the oth­er jurors wore me down. I had not want­ed to keep delib­er­at­ing, but after the order to con­tin­ue, I did not know how long I was sup­posed to keep defend­ing my vote for life…So I changed my vote to death. It is a deci­sion that has haunted me.”

Turner said she hoped her expe­ri­ence might help Winfield’s case for clemen­cy. Her affi­davit con­clud­ed by stat­ing, ​“When I dis­cov­ered that Mr. Winfield had been giv­en an exe­cu­tion date, I was sick to my stomach…It was hard on me to be a juror as a sin­gle mom, but I did my civic duty. I was called to ful­fill this duty. I did not ask to be a part of decid­ing whether a man should live or die…I feel respon­si­ble for Mr. Winfield’s fate. I strug­gle with that. If Mr. Winfield is exe­cut­ed, I will have to deal with that for­ev­er. I ask that Mr. Winfield’s sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole.”

(S. Mencimer, ​“A Missouri Juror Tries To Save Man She Helped Send to Death Row,” Mother Jones, June 10, 2014). See Clemency and Arbitrariness. See also DPIC’s report, Blind Justice.

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