A key witness’ retraction and DNA evidence could prove Willie Jerome Manning’s innocence in a 1992 double murder, his defense team says—even as Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch is pushing to have him executed before year’s end.
In 1994, an Oktibbeha County, Miss., court sentenced Manning, then 26, to death on two counts of first-degree murder for the 1992 shooting deaths of Mississippi State University students Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler just outside of the Starkville campus.
Manning and his defense team filed for post-conviction relief on Sept. 29 in an attempt to stop his execution, citing the fact that a key witness now says he lied when he told a former sheriff that Manning privately confessed to the murders.
“There’s newly discovered evidence also undermining his conviction,” Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel Director Krissy Nobile told the Mississippi Free Press on Nov. 20. She joined Manning’s defense team around a year ago.
Manning is now 55. Police have never recovered the gun used to kill the couple.
Fitch asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set execution dates for Willie Jerome Manning and another death row inmate, Robert Simon Jr., within 30 days in a court filing on Nov. 9. The court has not yet responded to the request.
Key Witness Recanted Testimony
Earl Jordan, a cousin of Willie Jerome Manning and an inmate who previously served his sentence alongside him at Mississippi State Penitentiary, told police that Manning confessed to him that he had murdered Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler. But Jordan retracted his testimony earlier this year and said he lied to get a lighter sentence.
Voisin said Jordan was afraid of former longtime Oktibbeha County Sheriff Dolph Bryan and went along with what the sheriff suggested to stay on his good side.
“But since that person’s no longer in office, he no longer has that same fear,” Voisin said. “So, this did not become available to us until recently.”
Click here to read Earl Jordan’s affidavit.
Jordan gave his sworn affidavit in Madison County on Sept. 29.
“I testified against Willie Manning in his trial for
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