USA - Mississippi. Charges effectively dropped against Manning for '93 double homicide

Charges effectively dropped against Manning for '93 double homicide. Prosecutors will not move forward with a new murder trial against Willie Jerome Manning, who previously stood accused of killing 2 women 22 years ago, court documents show. An order effectively dropping the charges was filed today in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court after the Mississippi Supreme Court overturned Manning's 1996 conviction and sentencing on February 12 (see). Justices ordered a new trial after determining the state violated Manning's due-process rights "by failing to provide favorable, material evidence." Emmoline Jimmerson and her daughter, Alberta Jordan, were found dead at their apartment in 1993. Police theorized they were killed during a robbery. A jury convicted Manning of the murders 3 years later, but the state's main witness who testified during the trial, Kevin Lucious, later recanted his statements in a sworn affidavits, the order states. Since the material witness changed his story, "the state is unable to meet the burden of its proof," the order states. "It's not a matter of if Manning did it or didn't do it, it's a matter of how we can't go forward," said district attorney Forrest Allgood. "He was functionally the way we proved our case. There was corroborating evidence, but there were no other witnesses that heard Manning admit the crime or go into the apartment." Lucious previously told then-Sheriff Dolph Bryan and then-Starkville Police Department Capt. David Lindley that Manning admitted he killed the 2 victims and provided specific details of the incident. An affidavit recanting the claims states Lucious testified "only because he was afraid of being charged with the 2 murders," that the information he provided was prepared by law enforcement and that Manning never said "he would not have killed the old ladies if he had known the (sic) didn't have money," Monday's order states. Lucious also withdrew testimony saying he saw Manning enter the victims' apartment near the time of the murders. Lucious is serving 2 life sentences without parole in Missouri. Manning, 46, remains behind bars at the Mississippi State Penitentiary after he was convicted of 2 capital murder charges stemming from the 1992 deaths of Mississippi State University students Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller. Manning was scheduled for lethal injection 2 years ago (see May 7, 2013), but the Supreme Court issued a stay before the procedure was executed.