5 Visits. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. APM Reports, the investigative and documentary reporting team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, spent a year digging into the Flowers case for its In the Dark podcast. Actually,In the Dark hasnt weighed in on the guilt-innocence issue (thats not what they do), but their careful dissection of DA Doug Evans case against Flowers has left the case in a shambles. Reporter: Mr Hemphill. He has been behind bars ever since. Find records of Willie Hemphill . Other facts may help explain why Hemphill initially was a suspect: The shoes he told In the Dark that he was wearing when he was questioned by investigators on July 21, 1996 Fila Grant Hill high-tops are the same type of sneaker that had left bloody footprints at the scene of the murders five days earlier. Sign the Guest Book . He told APM Reports that he was arrested and questioned in the . At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. Shortly after the killings, police arrested Hemphill, then 24, who was wearing a pair of the Grant Hill Fila shoes. In addition, he won an Emmy for the television show The West Wing.. The whole time Ive been telling them, I dont remember the day, Fleming said. Share to Twitter. The crime itself was extraordinary, but the case drew In The Darks attention because a local prosecutor had tried Flowers six times for the murders. Presley wasnt the only suspect defense attorneys didnt know investigators had seriously considered. And so, in the corridors of the courthouse last week, a female journalist with In The Dark confronted Hemphill about his airtight alibi. A witness whose statement put a man on death row for 22 years has performed a remarkable backflip, turning a case on its head. Willie James Hemphill has done many terrible things. When reporters talked to Hemphill last year, he said investigators cleared him because he had an alibi he called it "airtight." The podcast has never cared about the fundamental horrors of the justice system; it just wants to ensure that those horrors only happen to the correct people. Who was he? But the investigative file turned over to Flowers defense attorneys didnt mention the possible link. Willie Ray Hemphill, Jr., 49, of Bryan, passed away Thursday, August 13, 2009 at his residence. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results Willie James Hemphill (1952 - 2006) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. "We have never had any evidence that showed anything other than this defendant's guilt," Evans said. The podcasts reporters spent months methodically proving that prosecutors systematically denied black people a seat in the jury box, and how a man who is likely innocent has been repeatedly sentenced to death. In the sixth trial, inmate Odell Hallmon testified that Flowers told him about carrying out the Tardy murders, helping lead to Flowers conviction. Then why havent the defense attorneys who have represented Mr. He died on July 14, 2000 at age 81. The July 16, 1996, killings of Tardy Furniture owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees, Carmen Rigby, 45, Robert Golden, 42, and Derrick Stewart, 16, have haunted this town ever since. In addition, one jailhouse snitch has recanted, he said. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. After nearly 23 years locked up, Curtis Flowers has a chance to get out on bail if his lawyers can convince the judge to rule in his favor. But Flowers deserves to have a fair trial and prosecution, he said. In a remarkable turn of events almost 23 years after four people, including a 16-year-old boy, were gunned down and left inside the Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi, three things have happened. APM Reports recently interviewed a man named Willie James Hemphill, who said he was a suspect early in the investigation. Mr. Willie James Hemphill, of 1119-101 Kevin Lane, died Thursday, November 9, 2017. Asked to clarify what he'd just said, Hemphill became agitated. However, In the Dark's reporting has uncovered no clear evidence linking him to the Tardy murders. January 5, 1960 - August 13, 2009. US States (36975K) Current Events (51K) Celebrity (272) Exonerated (117) Favorites (421) FBI Most Wanted (848) Gangsters (49) Historical (131) Interpol (1.7K) . A Hearing. Fourteen lawyers. An APM Reports investigation of Hallmon's criminal history shows that at least seven felony charges against him fell away between 2001 and 2016. And there he was. Willie married Janeen Winegar on August 10, 2003 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Burial will follow in Hemphill Star Cemetery, Boyce. "False testimony is a corruption of the truth-finding process of a trial," Gershman said. Curtis Flowers is on Mississippis death row, convicted of the murders after six trials, but his lawyers, APM Reports In the Dark podcast, the Starz TV program The Wrong Man and others have raised questions about his guilt. Though he was a suspect early in the investigation, according to law enforcement records, and questioned extensively, Hemphill was later released after 11 days in jail and ruled out as a suspect for reasons that remain unclear. He attended Erskine College, where he earned a A.B. In Flowers' third trial, Snow testified that the height of the man she saw was between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5. Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. And that omission, a law professor and former prosecutor told the team, could mean a seventh new trial for Flowers, condemined to death for the murders of four people at Tardy Furniture Store. I was nowhere around., Reporter: The one thing that makes sense to me is that maybe if you had been on Front Street (where the murders took place) and you had seen something , Hemphill: Im done talking to you, youre trying to put me on Front Street., Reporter: Did you commit the murders that day?, Hemphill: Did you? In 1996, four people were killed execution-style inside Tardy Furniture, which faces one of the busiest streets in the small town of Winona. All times AEDT (GMT +11). The only other such form in the file was signed by Flowers. Why was he questioned? Username. Share via email. You said that was an airtight alibi we talked to Twanda and she said she wasnt with you that day., Hemphill: They released me based on that. Told that Woods had a clear memory of being in Winona on the morning of July 16 and learning, outside the Piggly Wiggly, that the murders had just happened, Hemphill interrupted and altered his story. A photo array that contains Marcus Presley (No. While he was working July 3, he loaded golf cart batteries into the back of a truck. Small is now claiming that I never gave (the gun) to him, Armstrong said. Jurors at Flowers trials had only heard of one suspect who could have worn Fila Grant Hills Flowers although investigators never found the shoes they said he wore. LOW HIGH. He said he knew nothing about the burglary. Search by Name Search . As I argue in the course of the program, Simpson seemed to be bending over backwards to let the world know that a gun had been stolen from his car in the parking lot of the garment factory where he worked. Hemphill supposedly had an alibi for the time of the murders, but when In The Dark dug into it, they were able to determine his alibi was barely credible if at all. The two men had family in both Boston and Norfolk. Eight days before these murders, a side door key was stolen. If you recall our last conversation, I wasnt in the city., Reporter: You said you were in Memphis with Twanda Woods. The Dallas Morning News. Willie Hemphill. Maybe he and Doyle were co-perpetrators. "If he's guilty, he's guilty.". Inside the store, authorities discovered bloody footprints left behind by a Grant Hill Fila basketball shoe. The similarities between the crimes were striking. Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name Updated February 22, 2005 War of 1812 Discharge Certificates Appendix I: List of Units and Subunits Appendix II: List of Company/Detachment Commanders Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name Appendix IV: List of Soldiers by Unit Appendix III: List of Soldiers by Name [table striped="true" responsive="true"]NameYearRegimentCompanyAbbey, Edward17951st . Simplistic journalism ethics call for reporters to follow the facts wherever they might lead. That same day, Horace Wayne Miller, a lieutenant with the Mississippi Highway patrol, asked Norfolk officials to keep him apprised of their investigation. Following his release from prison in 2013,Hallmon tried to run over a Carroll County sheriff's deputy while escaping a drug bust. Resides in Greenwood, MS. He said that side door leads to a ditch that would have provided a better escape route than simply walking back through town as authorities claimed Flowers had. And that's what I know," said David Goldberg, now retired from his job as a detective in the Norfolk Police Department. But his demeanor when approached by In the Dark investigative reporters was consistent with innocence. Injustice flourishes in the darkness, and the sun is now blazing in the heavens (at least for Curtis Flowers). He said: "If it wasn't for the fact that I had an airtight alibi, I could be the one on death row right now. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. Jessie Mae Hemphill [1]1923-2006 Blues musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist Blues musician and vocalist Jessie Mae Hemphill [2] was a paradox. Find an Obituary . They did, however, find bullets, bullet fragments and shell casings at the crime scene. One, Rigby,was killed with two shots to the head. Law enforcement clearly saw Hemphill as a prime suspect. Thats just standard procedure. "Yeah we was leaving. If youve listened toIn the Darkor watchedWrong Manon the Starz channel, you either came away convinced that Curtis Flowers didnt kill four people in cold blood back in 1996 or you werent paying attention. Their size was a.380. Updated: June 22, 2016 . Willie James Hemphill, 38. The accused has had his conviction overturned for the sixth time, the woman who put him at the scene of the murders has backflipped on her story and another man has been forced to deny it was him all along. Both men bounced from one traumatic living arrangement to another with no respite. If it hadnt been for a single slip of paper in the prosecutors file with Willie James Hemphills name on it, theIn the Dark squad wouldnt have known about the man. And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. The suspicion that the crimes could be connected was a matter of public record at the time. In the sixth, he was again convicted and sentenced to death, and his latest appeal was ongoing when the podcast started. - Law enforcement had interviewed a different suspect with a violent criminal history, Willie James Hemphill - a fact which was not disclosed to the defense. The presence of live ammunition on the floor suggested that one of the killers was using a 380 pistol that jammed repeatedly. Three of the four were each killed with a single head shot. Suppressing the evidence theyve already gathered might mean denying justice to the victims. Shooting a handgun with accuracy is more difficult than people think, said private investigator Charlie Saums of Ridgeland. Hallmon has since admitted he lied. The U.S. Supreme Court decided 7-to-1 that prosecutors unconstitutionally eliminated black jurors during the trial proceedings for Timothy Tyrone Foster in 1987. analysis of his record of striking potential black jurors, Curtis Flowers' prosecution witness says testimony was all 'make believe', Recanted testimony, subjective science helps put Curtis Flowers on death row, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. A series of Willie James Hemphill mugshots ranging from 2000 through 2016. listing of 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2.zip; file as jpg timestamp size; 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2/ Hemphill, Willie Mae Willie Mae Hemphill, Born March 8, 1926. The Dallas Morning News Homepage. … A bunch of lies., Asked about Hallmons recantation, District Attorney Doug Evans, who has prosecuted Flowers in all six trials, said, Thats why the judge instructs the jury that a jailhouse informant is not very reliable, because they can change their statements very easily, for any reason. Search by Name. The truths going to come out.. American Public Media reports that Hemphills ex-girlfriend Monkra Moore said she and Hemphill lived together in 1996 and claimed that he was home in Winona at around 7am on the morning of the murders. The day in photos. In other words, Evans committed two egregiousBrady violations that will, in the days that lie ahead, force the courts to grant a new trial and, just as likely, insist that Doug Evans recuse himself from this case. "I was here in Winona," Woods said. There is little doubt that Hemphill has done terrible things. But at Curtis Flowers' trials, the prosecution downplayed any investigation of other suspects. 0 Rate Willie. Two weeks later, a picture of Marcus Presley, the shooter in the Birmingham murders, was included in a photo array shown to Porky Collins, a witness in the Winona, Mississippi case. His website is. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill. The shooter, Marcus Presley (16) and his accomplice, Lasamuel Gamble (18) were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia on August 9, 1996 after two weeks on the run. APM lead investigative reporter Madeleine Baran found one page among the documents Evans did give the defense attorneys, a form someone named Willie James Hemphill, then 24, of Memphis had signed at the Winona Police Department five days after the murders waiving his rights to an attorney. And, unlike Curtis, Doyle had more than a passing acquaintance with organized crime (a mobster once left him for dead in a field outside of New Orleans). But both denied having committed the Tardy murders and said they'd never even been to Mississippi. According to testimony in Flowers' first trial, authorities found $255 hidden in the headboard of Flowers' girlfriend. The murder weapon in the Tardy Furniture case was a .380, and an unfired round was found at the scene; investigators believe that might indicate that the gun had jammed. Belfast (2021; co-nominated with Denise Yarde, Simon Chase and Niv Adiri) References External links. (Page 3) . He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. View More. Just weeks ago, however, reporters discovered that Hemphill had an upcoming court date in Indianapolis and met him there. WINONA Renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said evidence he reviewed of the 1996 Tardy Furniture slayings suggests more than one personcarried out the quadruple murder. In fact, he said, police never searched the crawl space beneath the house. Whoever killed four innocent people in the Tardy Furniture store on that fateful day in 1996 was familiar with armed violence and kind of liked it. It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Willie James Hemphill (Rock Hill, South Carolina), who passed away on November 9, 2017, leaving to mourn family and friends. Presley and Gamble were extradited to Alabama, and again Gamble was questioned, almost in passing, about Mississippi. Find an Obituary. Although authorities quicklysettled on Flowers as their main suspect, he wasnt arrested until seven months later. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. View Actual Score Check Background . Willie Hemphill is 80 years old and was born on 04/13/1942. In loving memory of Willie Mae Hemphill who passed away February 25, 2012. The two of them walked the same school halls from first grade through high school, he said. (Although that figure is, at best, an educated guess.). The podcasts decision to try to figure out who may have actually committed the murders at the Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Mississippi isnt surprising. At the time of his first known arrest, in 1990, he was an 18-year-old high school dropout bouncing back and forth between his mother's house in Memphis, Tennessee, and Winona, where his grandmother lived. . 614 records for Willie Hemphill. This narrative turn places In The Dark firmly, disappointingly, and alarmingly in the mainstream of the True Crime genre. So, if I am forced to pick an alternative perpetrator in this awful case I would lean toward the Birmingham Boys, Presley in particular. And if the two had spent just an hour at the mall assuming the mall, which is now closed, opened as early as 9 a.m. they'd have needed to leave Winona no later than 7 o'clock that morning.