State still wants execution dates set for 2 men on Mississippi's death row

Two Mississippi men, whose execution dates could be set in the near future, exhausted their legal remedies long ago, so the time has come for them to face their punishment, according to responses filed by Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office.

The state is responding to recent petitions filed by Willie Jerome Manning and Robert Simon Jr., both of whom have been on death row since the 1990s.

In November, Fitch asked the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for both men without responding to either man's open petition. Their attorneys sought — and were granted — delays until the attorney general's office filed responses for the court to consider.

Fitch said in court documents that the petitions filed this year are mere attempts to delay their punishment.

“Manning’s barred and meritless petition is merely an attempt to create an impediment to setting his execution date," the attorney general's office wrote in its response. "Manning tries to distract the Court from applicable law barring his petition by painting a solemn picture of 'newly discovered evidence' showing his alleged innocence. The Court should see through his efforts to rewrite the factual history of this case."

Manning was convicted of the 1994 murders of Mississippi State University students Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler. However, Manning maintains his innocence.

In Manning's case, his attorney said new evidence from a firearms expert and a witness who recanted his testimony is cause for further investigation.

Firearms expert William Tobin said in a 2013 affidavit that forensic science in firearms examinations is not definitive.

"The forensic practice of firearms/toolmarks associations lacks the rigor of science and should not be permitted to render inferences of specific source attribution (individualization), unfounded expressions of certainty of any kind, or other conclusions implying an aura of precision generally associated with scientific endeavor, without comprehensive or meaningful scientific foundation," Tobin wrote. "At the time of Manning's trial, and even currently, the strongest opinion that is scientifically defensible is that, in the examiner's opinion, [either] the characteristics exhibited by the questioned bullets were consistent with having been fired from the same weapon [or], alternatively, that the possibility that the questioned bullets were fired from the same firearm could not be eliminated."

In the state's response, Fitch said the "new" evidence isn't new since it was brought forward in 2013 and Tobin's expert opinion is still the same. And the recanted statement Manning is attempting to reintroduce as evidence that he did not commit the murders was previously rejected in earlier court action.

"As to the first element, Manning could have … at any time during the thirty years in between (trial and appeals) talked to individuals who were in jail with him through the exercise of reasonable diligence," Fitch wrote in the state's response. "This simple task would have revealed the alleged 'deals' the sheriff made. … Second, Manning cannot prove that this alleged 'newly discovered evidence' is 'of such a nature that it would be practically conclusive' it would have caused a different result at trial," which is one of the exceptions that could warrant a new trial.

One of the state's witnesses, Earl Jordan, said in a 2013 affidavit that he was pressured into saying Manning had told Jordan that Manning murdered the students. Jordan told then-investigators David Voisin and Sheila O'Flaherty with the Public Defenders Office that he never heard Manning confess to the slayings.

According to O'Flaherty, who documented Jordan's statement, that Jordan would not sign the affidavit because "someone 'with authority' threatened him in some manner."

Regardless, Jordan was asked several times if Manning admitted to him that he killed Steckler and Miller. Each time, Jordan said no.

"Mr. Voisin read to Mr. Jordan a statement that he had given to the sheriff about the confession that Mr. Manning supposedly made. Mr. Jordan told Mr. Voisin about Mr. Manning: "He never said he killed them." Mr. Voisin asked, "He never did?" Mr. Jordan replied, "He never did."

For Simon, the attorney general's office said regardless of how long he has had his current attorney assigned to his case, he has exhausted all legal remedies.

"Robert Simon has exhausted all federal and state court avenues of appeal and there is no impediment to his lawful execution," Fitch's response said. "Simon has completed his constitutionally required direct appeal and was denied relief."

Simon, along with Anthony Carr, who is also on death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, was convicted at trial for murder, sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary in connection with the deaths of four family members in Quitman County, including two children.

In addition, Fitch said the Supreme Court should strike a supplemental response filed on behalf of Simon that goes into further detail on why Simon should not be executed, because his attorneys allegedly did not follow court guidelines when filing the supplement.

"Simon was obligated to seek leave of this Court before amending or supplementing his response," Fitch wrote. "He did not. Simon cites no authority that authorizes his supplemental response."

Krissy Nobile, an attorney with the state's Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel who represents both Manning and Simon, in her response to Fitch's motion to strike the supplemental filing said the document was properly filed.

She also said the state has a record of asking the court to strike what it can't dispute.

"The State cites not one appellate rule for the proposition that Robert Simon’s response need be stricken because no such appellate rule exists," Nobile wrote in her response. "The State’s motion instead follows the now well-worn path of seeking to strike filings when the State cannot summon a substantive retort."

In addition, Nobile said, for the last six or seven years Simon has not been able to work on his own defense because of the state's actions.

"From 2017 to October 2023, the State did not seek to execute Simon; it instead blocked Simon’s access to his own records and thwarted attempts to have Simon evaluated by experts," she wrote. "For around six years, Simon was thus unable to access the very records and experts required to properly petition for post-conviction relief. It is only recently that the State’s practice of obstructing inmate access to counsel, records, and experts finally ended."

She has been working on securing experts to evaluate Simon's mental competence in the few months since she was assigned to Simon's case. His mental capacity also was called into question in 2011, when the state first sought to execute Simon.

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This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Mississippi AG says 2 men on death row have no more legal recourse