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(The posted letter is not necessarily the views of MageeNews.com or its staff. This is an opinion column. Anyone wishing to submit a column for publication should email sue@mageenews.com. The letter must give name and address as well as a contact number)
Dear editor:
In light of the decision Mississippians face in this year’s Governor’s race, I hope you will consider running this as a guest column in your opinion section.
Like you, I feel strongly that candidates should be scrutinized and face hard questions regarding their previous professional record, especially if they have prior public service.
As you will see in the piece, I am a grieving father, and I have no uncertain opinion of Mr. Waller’s previous record. I believe other voters should be made aware or reminded of this case as they make their decision next Tuesday.
Although this case has been reported about, opined about and chronicled for almost 30 years, it remains an unresolved and RELEVANT issue, particularly as one of its central players is seeking Mississippi’s highest elected office.
Willie Jerome Manning, has been convicted of 4 savage murders, yet Judge Waller’s court has been all over the legal map for more than 20 years, making rulings, reversing those rulings and the net result thus far has been decades of delayed justice with no end to this saga in sight. So, in the interest of full-disclosure and full-vetting of the candidates, I respectfully ask that you consider this submission.
Archie C. Miller
Mendenhall, MS
In his race for Governor, former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. is claiming to be a conservative. Yet on the court he sided with the most liberal, criminal-friendly interpretations of our laws, even when confronted with a quadruple murderer.
The lifelong criminal convicted of killing my daughter and three others had his conviction and his execution overturned by Chief Justice Waller’s court.
In 1992, my daughter was one of two Mississippi State University students randomly killed, and their convicted murderer was saved from execution at the 11thhour, largely through the actions of Chief Justice Bill Waller.
Manning would later be found trying to sell items that belonged to my daughter and John.
Just six years before, when Manning attempted an appeal, Judge Waller had written that such questioning about a polygraph test was not grounds for overturning Manning’s conviction. Justice Waller changed his mind and reversed himself in 2004.
Nevertheless, my daughter’s accused killer was still facing execution for the other killings. In 2013 he was about to be executed. Finally, justice was about to exact its toll.
The pressure from the Obama team was enough for Justice Waller and the court’s liberals to stop the execution of my daughter’s murderer shortly before it was to occur.
“Fly” Manning lives on. He is aided by liberal lawyers who have cleverly helped him avoid the reaper, and a man who wants to be your next “conservative” Governor.
