Donnis Musgrove
Alabama: Conviction, 1988; Died on Death Row, 2015
David Rogers
Alabama: Conviction, 1988; Died on Death Row, 2004

Donnis Musgrove (pic­tured) died of lung can­cer on Alabama​’s death row on November 25, while his case — which includ­ed a sub­stan­tial claim of inno­cence — was pend­ing before a fed­er­al judge. Musgrove’s attor­neys had asked U.S. District Judge David Proctor to rule quick­ly because of Musgrove’s medical condition. 

Musgrove and his co-defen­dant, David Rogers, who pre­vi­ous­ly died on Alabama’s death row, were sen­tenced to death in 1988. Rogers’ lawyer, Tommy Nail — a state court judge at the time of Musgrove’s death — said he believed Musgrove and Rogers ​“got a raw deal and I’ve always felt they were not guilty of this offense.” 

Nail said the case shared ​“eerie” sim­i­lar­i­ties with that of death row exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton: both cas­es were tried by the same pros­e­cu­tor before the same judge, and the pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed ques­tion­able weapons tes­ti­mo­ny from the same bal­lis­tics expert. The bal­lis­tics tes­ti­mo­ny in Hinton’s case was con­tra­dict­ed by three oth­er bal­lis­tics experts, and pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed not to retry him after say­ing they could not link the bul­lets from the crime to a gun that belonged to Hinton. The defen­dants in both cas­es also pre­sent­ed sol­id ali­bi evi­dence, Nail said. 

Musgrove’s attor­neys argued that, in addi­tion to sim­i­lar­ly unre­li­able bal­lis­tics tes­ti­mo­ny, Musgrove’s con­vic­tion was taint­ed by fal­si­fied eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and false tes­ti­mo­ny by a jail­house infor­mant who lat­er recant­ed. Musgrove’s attor­ney, Cissy Jackson, said ​“It was a priv­i­lege to know and rep­re­sent Donnis. My hus­band and I have been work­ing for his release since 1997, and we are so sor­ry that he did not live to be exonerated.”

Read: Attorney: Alabama Inmate Seeking Freedom From Death Row Dies, Associated Press, November 26, 2015.
Read: Kent Faulk, Attorney: Alabama Death Row inmate dies in prison, AL​.com, November 27, 2015.
Read: Alabama judge: Death Row inmate got ​‘raw deal,’ was wrong­ly con­vict­ed, Associated Press, May 30, 2015.
Read: Jay Reeves, Alabama death row inmate: Another inno­cent man?, Associated Press, April 25, 2015.