Should a man on death row be allowed to keep fighting? Mississippi Supreme Court says no
For a second time this year, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied a man on death row a chance to be heard and offered no explanation as to why as of Monday afternoon.
Timothy Ronk, 44, was sentenced to death in 2010 in Harrison County for capital murder and an additional 30 years for armed robbery in the stabbing death of Michelle Craite in her Woolmarket home. His convictions and sentences were upheld on appeal in 2015.
The ruling, issued Thursday, was not unanimous. Two justices, James Kitchens and Leslie King, did not agree with the state's highest court's decision. Both justices, along with Justice David Ishee, disagreed with the majority decision on an earlier motion rejecting Ronk's quest for a rehearing.
In January, the court overturned a precedent set in 2013 in another death row case in which a man was denied relief, also for ineffective assistance of counsel in post-conviction proceedings.
"Based on Howell, Grayson is overruled to the extent it excepted ineffective assistance-of-post-conviction-counsel claims from the UPCCRA’s bars in death-penalty cases," Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote in the earlier decision.
The UPCCRA is the Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. The act provides for a convicted person to seek independent court relief that is not part of the post-sentencing phase of the original trial.
Kitchens called the ruling "nonsensical" and wrote in his earlier dissent that "today’s partial reversal of Grayson leaves death-penalty petitioners with a right to 'competent and conscientious' post-conviction counsel but with no mechanism for petitioning for redress of a viable claim that post-conviction counsel was ineffective."
He said there is no turning back once a death sentence is carried out.
"The right to access the courts is acutely critical under the heightened standards applicable to death penalty proceedings," Kitchens wrote in January. "We must resolve all genuine doubts in favor of the accused."
A motion for a rehearing also was denied in 2019.
Last week's ruling did not sit well with attorneys for the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, who are representing Ronk.
Last week's ruling, like the one issued in January, denies their client the right to seek relief in the court even though they believe there is good cause to continue pursuing legal relief. The rehearing is not intended to be a repeat of arguments already made, but to point out "specific errors of law or fact" found in a court's opinion.
Krissy Nobile, director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, said it is likely her office will continue its pursuit of legal relief in federal court.
She said in a text that the decision affects not only her client, but others in the justice system who may have need to keep the door open to make their cases as new evidence arises, especially those who may be innocent. Nobile added that if there are innocent people in prison, those who are guilty have yet to be prosecuted.
"The right to effective lawyers is what has allowed innocent people, including people who had been sentenced to death, to be exonerated in Mississippi," Nobile said in an earlier story. "In Ronk v. State, the Mississippi Supreme Court held that, while there may be a right to effective assistance of post-conviction counsel in death penalty cases, there is no longer a remedy for that right in Mississippi."
The January decision in Ronk's case could also play a part in another case of a man on death row. Attorney General Lynn Fitch said in February that Robert Simon Jr. also is out of legal options, citing the January Ronk decision.
Fitch is seeking an execution date for Simon and another man, Willie Jerome Manning, convicted of capital murder in a separate case.
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: MS Supreme Court denies rehearing again in Timothy Ronk death row case
