Donnis Musgrove dies on Alabama's death row still trying to clear his name over 30-year-old murder
The 67-year-old died at the Donaldson correctional facility in Alabama on Wednesday night
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Your support makes all the difference.A man seeking to clear his name over a murder that happened almost 30 years ago and which he always always said he did not commit, has died while on death row.
A lawyer for Donnis Musgrove, said the 67-year-old had died at the Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, on Wednesday night.
Lawyer Cissy Jackson said she had been working with the convicted man for a number of years and told the Associated Press she was sad her client had not lived long enough to see his name cleared. He had been suffering from lung cancer.
“It was a privilege to know and represent Donnis,” Ms Jackson said in a statement.
“My husband and I have been working for his release since 1997, and we are so sorry that he did not live to be exonerated.”
Musgrove had been convicted and sentenced to death with another man, David Rogers, for the shooting of Coy Barron in 1986.
However, he steadfastly maintained his innocence, and his lawyers said the prosecution had falsified the evidence against him, including witness statements and a shell casing that was used to link him to the shooting.
In May, a local judge who as a lawyer had represented Musgrove’s co-accused, said he believed both men had received a raw deal. The co-accused has since died.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tommy Nail had said he hoped a federal review would clear Musgrove.
“I really think they got a raw deal and I’ve always felt they were not guilty of this offence,“ he said.
Musgrove was trying to become the third inmate freed from Alabama’s death row since April. Two other men were released after winning appeals.
One, Anthony Ray Hinton, was tried by the same Jefferson County prosecutor and judge who handled Musgrove’s case. The same ballistics expert was involved in each case.
Musgrove contended that the evidence of wrongdoing in his case was more extensive than in the case against Hinton.
The state had argued that rules prohibited Musgrove from making new claims about being innocent and barred him from questioning evidence used in his trial. However, prosecutors did not directly address his arguments contending he was wrongfully convicted based on bogus evidence conjured up by prosecutors and police.
In August, his legal team asked the judge to rule quickly because of his illness and his hospitalisation, in grave condition.
“We would love to get him out of prison so he could have some peace after being wrongfully imprisoned for so many years,” Ms Jackson sad at the time
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