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UPDATED 5/7/13, 3:58 p.m.: The Supreme Court of Mississippi has stayed the execution of Willie Jerome Manning. While the Court stated that it has responded to numerous motions filed by the defense, it is not exactly clear what the next steps will be.

Robert Mink, one of Manning’s attorney’s, told NewsOne that they do not know how long the stay will last, what they will be allow to do, or ordered to do during the stay period.

A lone justice, Michael K. Randolph, wrote a dissenting letter, arguing that the arguments presented in recent motions have been presented before the court before. Moreover, he expressed concern that the language used  in the Justice Department’s letters suggest too cozy a relationship with the Innocence Project.

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UPDATED 5/7/13, 2:35 p.m.: The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent three letters to District Attorney Deforest Allgood over the past four days saying it considers testimony from its examiners during Willie Jerome Manning’s murder 1994 trial to be “invalid.” The letters were based on a review of microscopic hair comparisons and testimony presented by the FBI Laboratory before 2000, after mitochondrial DNA testing became available.

During the trial, an FBI examiner implied that a general hair sample could be associated with a particular individual and exclude others. The Justice Department said in a May 2 letter to Allgood that such testimony “exceeded science” and was therefore “invalid.” In a May 4 letter, the DOJ mentioned an additional error in the examiner’s testimony: “an examiner cannot testify with a statement of probability the questioned hairs were from an individual of a particular racial group, but can testify that a hair exhibits traits associated with a particular group.”

A May 6 letter from the DOJ also states that testimony from an FBI ballistics expert used by the prosecution also contained errors.n The FBI has offered to test the evidence from the case, given that testimony from its department contained numerous errors.

All three letters are below.

NewsOne spoke with one of Manning’s lawyer’s, Robert Mink, to ask how his client was doing in light of the recent developments. Mink says the May 2 letter “brought tears to (Manning’s) eyes” when he last spoke to him Thursday. “He remains hopeful,” Mink said of Manning. “He is confident. Surprisingly upbeat.”

Mink added that Manning told him that his approaching execution no longer worries him like it used to. Manning did not elaborate. He is scheduled to be put to death today at 6 p.m. CST.

NewsOne reached out to District Attorney Allgood for comment, but he was unavailable.

Mink said he and his co-counsel has filed additional motions with the Mississippi Supreme Court, hoping the Court will consider the letters and stay the execution so that new DNA testing can help determine whether or not Manning did kill Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller.

Justice Department Letter (May 6): Firearms Expert Testimony ‘Invalid”

Justice Department Letter (May 4): Hair Testimony “Invalid”

Justice Department Letter (May 2): Hair Testimony “Invalid”

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Test the evidence.

That’s what Willie Jerome Manning (pictured) and his legal team have been asking the state of Mississippi to do for the past 10 years, since being sentenced to death in 1994 for killing two White Mississippi State University students.

RELATED: George Stinney: The Youngest Person Ever Executed In The U.S.

Jon Steckler‘s and Tiffany Miller‘s bodies were found in Oktibbeha County Dec. 11, 1992.

Both were shot to death.

Miller’s car was missing but was located the next day. Manning was arrested after allegedly trying to sell the victims’ items. The evidence used to convict him was incriminating but not exact.

While hairs from an African-American male were found in Miller’s vehicle, DNA analysis was not sophisticated enough at that time to determine if they actually belonged to Manning.

It didn’t matter.

Manning was convicted for both murders and sentenced to death, even though he maintained his innocence throughout the case.

And after nearly 20 years, Manning is set to be executed on May 7th even with new testing technology that could exonerate him and point to the real killer if he is indeed innocent as he claims.

Unfortunately, Manning’s case is tragic but not uncommon.

Amnesty International reports that since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row inmates have been executed for killing Whites, even though Blacks make up about half of homicide victims. Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty, told NewsOne that Manning and other people of color are at an extreme disadvantage when they are accused of killing Whites.

RELATED: The Top 5 Most Wrongful Executions Of All-Time

“You can have a case where there is circumstantial evidence,” Rust-Tierney said. “There’s evidence that hasn’t been tested and you can still get a conviction. So I think one of the things we see is that the death penalty and the way it operates actually increases the risk that the wrong person will be subjected to the death penalty by the very nature of the process.”

Over the years, Manning’s legal team has filed countless motions citing faults with the process used to convict their client. One is of a jailhouse witness who claims Manning confessed to the murders but later admitted that he lied. Perhaps the most disturbing complaint was with the approach the prosecution used to select jurors. Some Blacks were reportedly disqualified from sitting on the jury because they read Black magazines.

RELATED: Supreme Court Halts Texas Execution Due To Racist Testimony

Unfortunately, each time Manning has presented the aforementioned arguments, among others, judges have sided with the defense.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Manning’s case as well.

But there was a glimmer of hope that their losing streak would end two weeks ago, when the the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled on whether to allow evidence from the murder case to be tested. The court narrowly ruled 5-4 in favor of the defense. In the majority opinion, Associate Justice Michael Randolph said Manning’s conviction was based on more than what his defense was challenging.

“The absence of Manning’s DNA does not preclude his participation in the crimes charged,” Randolph said. “Manning fails to demonstrate a reasonable probability that he would not have been convicted or would have received a lesser sentence if favorable results had been obtained through such forensic DNA testing at the time of the original prosecution.”

In a dissenting opinion, however, Associate Justice Leslie King found fault with the prosecution’s handling of the hairs.

“Should a DNA test demonstrate that the African-American hairs found in Miller’s cart did not belong to Manning, then the infirmity in the prosecution’s emphasis on the importance of the evidence would be exposed. And it would certainly raise reasonable questions regarding Manning’s guilt,” King said.

With less than one day left until Manning’s execution, his legal team has run out of options.

Robert Mink, one of Manning’s attorneys, told NewsOne that they’ve taken their case to Gov. Phil Bryant, hoping Mississippi’s top executive will do what the courts so far have refused to do.

“We’re hoping that the governor will stay the execution long enough to allow the DNA testing to occur,” Mink said. “It won’t take long. We’re talking about something that can be accomplished in 30 days. We see no good reason not to do the testing when there is evidence that could be highly probative. It could identify the real perpetrator.”

According to the Innocence Project, 306 people have been exonerated post-conviction after DNA testing proved their innocence; 190 of those exonerated were African American. The true perpetrators or suspects were identified in 148 of the 306 exonerations.

Supporters have set up a website, “Justice4Willie,” with a Change.org petition asking Gov. Bryant to stay Manning’s execution. So far it has 984 signatures as of press time. In a recent interview with the Natchez Democrat newspaper, Steckler’s sister, Suzanne, said Manning’s death will not help her feel any better.

“This is just my personal opinion, and I won’t speak for the rest of the family, but it doesn’t bring our brother back,” she said. “Because of that, we don’t wish that ill will on anyone else’s family. I don’t believe [Manning’s] death helps us in one way or another.”

UPDATE: Stay Of Execution Granted In Death Row Inmate’s Case  was originally published on newsone.com