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Post by Stormyweather on Apr 24, 2010 17:24:29 GMT -6
Defense attorneys say execution date request premature for Miss. death row inmateBy Associated Press 9:25 AM CDT, April 23, 2010 JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Death row inmate Joseph Daniel Burns has a federal appeal pending so the state's request for the setting of an execution date is premature, according documents filed with the Mississippi Supreme Court. Attorney General Jim Hood has asked Mississippi court to set execution dates for Burns and two other inmates. In Burns' case, Hood's office said attorneys for the inmate missed a deadline for filing a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case. However, the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel said, in documents filed this week with the Mississippi court, that Burns' attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overlook the late filing and hear Burns' appeal. U.S. Supreme Court records show the state has until May 20 to response to Burns' motion. www.wreg.com/news/sns-ap-ms--missexecutions,0,132403.story
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Post by Charlene on Apr 24, 2010 18:49:09 GMT -6
Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel said, in documents filed this week with the Mississippi court, that Burns' attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overlook the late filing and hear Burns' appeal. I don't understand what they think a deadline means.....why have deadlines if they don't count? And if their clients' lives are on the line, as ALL OF THEIR CLIENTS ARE, why would they ever miss a deadline?
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Post by Charlene on Apr 24, 2010 19:39:30 GMT -6
During the day of November 9, 1994, Joseph Daniel Burns and Phillip Hale went to the Town House Motel on Gloster Street in Tupelo, Mississippi where Mike McBride was the hotel manager. Phillip Hale testified that he and McBride were friends, and that he introduced Burns to McBride on November 9, 1994. Phillip Hale testified that he went in and asked McBride if they could stay there three or four days. McBride said sure, and Phillip went out to the truck, got his bag and asked Burns to come inside. Phillip Hale testified that they then "hung out for awhile" with McBride. Burns and Phillip Hale then went to get something to eat and watched a movie before returning to the motel office. McBride asked Burns and Phillip Hale if they wanted to help him count $30,000. They agreed and while they were counting the money, the two decided to rob McBride. Burns and Phillip Hale agreed that Hale would hit McBride and Burns would take the money. Phillip Hale further testified that he hit McBride and knocked him down and left the room to make sure nobody was coming. When he returned to the room, Burns was stabbing McBride in the back of the neck with a knife, a fork, and a Phillip's head screwdriver. When Hale asked Burns what he was doing, Burns stabbed Hale in the foot. Hale testified that McBride was repeating "why me" while he was being stabbed to death. After the stabbing, Burns and Hale wiped fingerprints, got the money and left. The record reflects that $3,000 was taken from a tin safe in McBride's office. Burns broke the lock off of the safe with a pair of pliers. After the stabbing, Burns and Phillip Hale returned to the trailer in Verona where they were living with Janie Taylor and Brandi Sides. Burns went into Janie Taylor's room, whom he was dating at the time, woke her up, told her what they had done, counted the money, and divided the money between himself and Hale ($1,500 each). Phillip Hale then went to his brother, Jeff's, shop. His brother was out of town. Burns showed up later and informed Phillip Hale that he had thrown the "stuff" behind the trailer park where they lived. The testimony of State's witness, Carrie Cryder, revealed that on December 24, 1994 he and Burns were riding around, and Burns retrieved the weapons from behind the trailer and threw them off of the bridge on Brewer Road. Later that day, on November 10, 1994, Phillip Hale parked the truck the two had driven to the Town House Motel behind Jeff's house because he was fearful that someone had seen the truck and could identify Burns and Hale by the truck. Jeff Hale had loaned his brother the truck several weeks before McBride was killed. When Jeff Hale returned to town, he was suspicious about why Phillip had parked the truck behind the house. Also, Phillip paid his brother, Jeff, $600 he owed him, and this too made Jeff suspicious about where Phillip got the money. When Jeff first asked Phillip where the money came from, Phillip lied to him. Phillip testified that he ultimately told his brother that he and Burns killed McBride, although there is some question about when he told him. Burns also told Jeff Hale what happened. The following weekend, on November 12, 1994, Burns, Phillip Hale and his brother, Jeff went to Tunica to the casinos and spent the money they had stolen from the Town House Motel returning to Tupelo with $100 or $200. A guest of the Town House Motel the night of November 9, 1994 testified for the State. He testified that he remembered seeing two men arrive at the motel in a tan truck that fit the description of the truck belonging to Jeff Hale that Phillip Hale was driving on the day of the murder. The guest testified that they arrived about 8:00 p.m. and left around 10:00 or 10:30 p.m. McBride's body was found by another employee of the motel around 7:00 a.m. the next morning. Phillip Hale and Burns were not arrested until August of 1995 concerning this crime. The Tupelo Police Department arrested them pursuant to an investigation that ensued after two anonymous phone calls were received by the Crime Stoppers. McBride's body was found in his living quarters at the Town House Motel. McBride died from a combination of blunt force injuries to the head and neck caused by numerous blows to the head and back of the neck and exsanguination from the injuries to his face and neck. While Burns was in jail in Lee County, he began corresponding with a female prisoner, Contina Kohlheim. In the letters Burns sent Kohlheim, he talks about killing a man. "Look about the guy I killed, me and Phillip were dealing with a lot of dope and Phillip was giving our dope to this guy. He owed us $58,000. I told Phillip to ask him one more time to pay us but he never did. So that night we went to the town house and I killed his ass." In the other letter Burns sent Kohlheim, he wrote, "I took a man's life now I'm looking at the Death Penalty." Testimony at trial revealed that Burns was not charged with any other murder, and there had been no other murders at the Town House Motel. The letters were signed from "JoJo," or "Love JoJo." Burns gave the letters to a male trustee who in turn gave them to the jailer who then gave them to a female trustee to deliver since the male prisoners were not allowed to go to the female side of the jail. Kohlheim turned the letters over to the police after being asked to do so. Following a request by the district attorney's office, Officer Buddy Bell obtained a handwriting sample from Burns under the pretense of having him write down who would be allowed to visit him in jail. A comparison was then made between the letters written to Kohlheim and the known writing sample of Burns. The state's expert determined that there was a strong probability that the signatures on both letters were Burns'. He further determined that the content of both letters was probably written by Burns. There was also a fingerprint analysis done on the letters. Burns' fingerprints were found on both letters obtained from Tina Kohlheim.
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Post by Stormyweather on Apr 24, 2010 23:11:05 GMT -6
Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel said, in documents filed this week with the Mississippi court, that Burns' attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overlook the late filing and hear Burns' appeal. I don't understand what they think a deadline means.....why have deadlines if they don't count? And if their clients' lives are on the line, as ALL OF THEIR CLIENTS ARE, why would they ever miss a deadline? Good question. I have wondered that myself. Seems their attorneys better start getting on the ball.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 25, 2010 19:47:21 GMT -6
...McBride asked Burns and Phillip Hale if they wanted to help him count $30,000. They agreed and while they were counting the money, the two decided to rob McBride.... Maybe it's just me, but this sounds like a Darwin award nomination for the murder victim.
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Post by Charlene on Apr 25, 2010 22:26:09 GMT -6
...McBride asked Burns and Phillip Hale if they wanted to help him count $30,000. They agreed and while they were counting the money, the two decided to rob McBride.... Maybe it's just me, but this sounds like a Darwin award nomination for the murder victim. Too true. Some people just trust everyone.
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mst3k4evur
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Ameeerrrrrricaaa, F**k Yah!
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Post by mst3k4evur on Apr 27, 2010 16:39:51 GMT -6
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