SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE IN MISSISSIPPI

The New Orleans chapter of a national, nonprofit legal-aid clinic organization that has exonerated five wrongfully-convicted Louisiana inmates is investigating seven Mississippi cases. Among those cases is the 1997 murder and armed robbery convictions of then 19-year-old Cedric Willis in Hinds County. The group also is trying to find evidence that could exonerate Nelson McKinney, then 36 when he was convicted of rape and armed robbery in Lee County in 1985.

Emily Maw of the Innocence Project said Willis deserves a new trial because evidence that could have cleared him wasn't allowed at trial. Willis was convicted of shooting Carl White Jr. and robbing White's wife, Gloria, and daughter, Jamilla, at their home at 3570 Michael Clay Drive. White died six days later. Willis later was sentenced to life in prison. Maw said jurors never heard evidence that the gun used in the homicide and robbery also had been used in four cases, including an armed robbery and rape. Willis also was indicted on the armed robbery and rape charges. But a DNA test excluded him in the rape, Maw said. Prosecutors dropped the rape and armed robbery charges, but jurors never heard that those charges were dropped, Maw said. "This struck us as particularly unfair," she said.

That excluded evidence could have given jurors reason to doubt Willis' guilt, Maw said. She hopes the DNA sample that exonerated Willis in the robbery and rape case hasn't been destroyed. She said it could be entered into the national DNA database to see if a match exists. A match would lead police to a suspect in the robbery and rape case, Maw said. It could also give police a suspect in the homicide and robbery case. "Cedric has faced 11 years of injustice," Maw said. "But the victims in these cases are the victims of the greatest injustice of all."

Former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, who prosecuted Willis, couldn't be reached. Hinds District Attorney Faye Peterson said she didn't know the Innocence Project had taken Willis' case or had filed a request for a new trial on Feb. 25. The case has not yet been scheduled for a hearing, Peterson said. The Hinds County Public Defender's Office had been appointed to represent Willis in 2002. Public Defender Tom Fortner couldn't be reached.

Maw said it was a mistake that Willis wasn't allowed to present his defense. "Everybody suffers when the wrong person goes away," she said. The Innocence Project decided to investigate Willis' case after he contacted the national Innocence Project, Maw said. The national Innocence Project, founded in 1992 at a New York City law school, has exonerated 158 inmates.

In the McKinney case, the state Supreme Court on Feb. 1 decided McKinney is entitled to all evidence related to his conviction. McKinney was convicted of robbing and raping a 50-year-old clerk at the Town House Motel in Tupelo. The woman identified McKinney as her attacker, even though he and his neighbors testified he was home when the crimes happened. Maw wouldn't discuss McKinney's case. She said she fears publicity will make it harder for her to get information she needs that could exonerate him.

Lee County District Attorney John Young prosecuted the case. He said he found out the Innocence Project had begun investigating it about four months ago when he was asked for evidence. "We looked for the file, but we couldn't find it," Young said. "It's hard to put something together that happened 15 or 16 years ago." He said he thought he had a strong case against McKinney. He's not surprised McKinney is trying to get a new trial. "For some of these guys, it's a matter of keeping on to keep on, regardless of how strong (their arguments) are," Young said. I think a lot of these things that are filed are frivolous. If I thought someone was purely innocent, they wouldn't be prosecuted."

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