JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A death row inmate convicted of killing two university students in 1992 is continuing his quest to convince a court he deserves a new trial.
Willie Jerome Manning is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to give him a new trial, saying that his defense was ineffective and that black residents were inappropriately excluded from his Oktibbeha County jury. Manning is African-American.
Manning was turned down by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July on grounds his post-conviction petition was filed too late to be heard in Mississippi courts.
Manning received two death sentences for the 1992 slayings of two Mississippi State University students. A jury in Oktibbeha County convicted Manning in 1994 for killing Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller.
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