The ACLU of Mississippi filed an amicus brief today on behalf of Willie Manning, a Black man on death row who was falsely convicted of killing two white college students.
Manning's case has many of the hallmarks of those of other innocent death row exonerees: false snitch testimony, junk science, and racial bias.
Mr. Manning’s conviction was part of a broader pattern of law enforcement framing Black defendants for crimes through illegally procured witness testimony.
Black defendants face a heightened risk of false convictions. In this country, and in Mississippi more specifically, there is an undeniable, overwhelming pattern of false convictions of Black defendants for serious crimes. As a Black man, Mr. Manning faced an exponentially higher probability of false conviction than a white person accused of the same crime.
The prosecutor improperly eliminated Black individuals from the jury. Unlike a more diverse jury, the resulting jury, with only two Black people, was primed to wrongfully convict Mr. Manning.
The ACLU of MS joins ACLU National and the MS NAACP in calling on the MS Supreme Court to prevent this miscarriage of justice.
Today, our Constance Slaughter-Harvey racial justice attorney - solely dedicated to confronting issues of racial discrimination and social justice - is spearing heading this work and all statewide efforts in racial justice.
