Finding the truly guilty person (or people) strengthens the case that Flowers is innocent. Shortly after the killings, police arrested Hemphill, then 24, who was wearing a pair of the Grant Hill Fila shoes. So where was Hemphill during the day? It wasn't that day." View Actual Score Check Background . The podcast, which uncovered evidence used by Flowers to get his conviction overturned, spoke with witness Clemmie Fleming. 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. Wrong Manpresented us with a small group of criminal justice professionals who started out believing that Curtis was probably the killer. When Willie Hemphill was born on 14 August 1891, in Mississippi, United States, her father, Thomas Wiley Hemphill, was 23 and her mother, Izora Sullivan, was 21. Relatives were alarmed to see a swarm of police cars descending on their homes in search of Willie James. At first he was reluctant to divulge who he was with that morning, but later said it was a woman named Twanda Woods. 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. "After a short time, we realized that he didn't know anything about the case.". Just after the murders, police arrested and jailed him as a suspect, but then let him go. Its almost impossible to not hate him and to believe he is guilty. Reporters also poked holes in Hemphill . Sure, he had worked at Tardys in the past. Willie James Hemphill, age 37, Justice, IL Search Report. Each victim had been murdered execution styleone or two bullets to the back of the head. 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. No one was going to all that trouble over the approximately $400 investigators say was in the till that morning. He didnt mark it or put it in an evidence bag, he told the Clarion Ledger. But after several hours of interviews conducted over two days, Hemphill finally disclosed his alibi: He said he was at a mall in Memphis at the time of the murders, with a Winona woman named Twanda Woods. Law enforcement clearly saw Hemphill as a prime suspect. After learning that Willie James Hemphill was an initial suspect in the murders at Tardy Furniture, reporters for In the Dark wanted to find out if he'd ever broken the law before. "They were investigating that intently back then. A wealthy lawyer who killed his wife and son at close range has been sentenced in one of the most troubling cases the judge said he had seen. Willie Hemphill's passing at the age of 97 has been publicly announced by Arnold Family Funeral Services Inc. - Hillside Chapel in Altadena, CA.Legacy invites you to offer condolences and share memori The district attorneys office isnt commenting. ", If Evans and his prosecution witnesses knowingly or unknowingly withheld evidence from the defense of other suspects in the Winona killings, they could be in violation of the Brady rule, named after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says a criminal defendant must be given evidence that could point toward his innocence. "We have never had any evidence that showed anything other than this defendant's guilt," Evans said. Then why havent the defense attorneys who have represented Mr. But there was a three-week gap in the Alabama crime spree right at the time of the Tardy murders. It was all make believe. She had at least 2 sons and 1 daughter with James Tobias Whitehead. My mom, my stepdad were afraid that, hey, if they're manhunting me like that, they may shoot me down in the street, Hemphill told them. Thats just standard procedure. But attempting to deliver another black man into that same system goes against its good work. 0 Reputation Score Range. Their pattern was to spend a week or so lying low before going on another rampage. listing of 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2.zip; file as jpg timestamp size; 6209011-20040428-Willie-James-Hemphill-Criminal-Civil_jp2/ He lived near Tardy Furniture at the time of the murders, and near where a gun that might have been the murder weapon was found. Psychologist John R. Goff tested Flowers, concluding his IQ was 75. Submit an Obituary. NEWS & ADVICE. Episode 10 of the In the Dark Podcast was largely dedicated to the strange case of Willie James Hemphill, a local bad boy with a violent streak who was continually getting cross-ways with the law. When In The Dark spoke to Woods, she denied the two were together. Willie James Hemphill has done many terrible things. 614 records for Willie Hemphill. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results Willie James Hemphill (1952 - 2006) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. Menu. James appears the first time in the 1870 Federal Census as a six year-old, living with two brothers and a sister on his parents farm in Lampasas County, Texas. Suppressing the evidence theyve already gathered might mean denying justice to the victims. Eight days later, Tardy and three others working for the store were killed execution-style. At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. Flowers has remained imprisoned the entire time, for more than 20 years. Reporters from In the Dark tried to contact Hemphill online to present him with these findings. Her sister says she was in the house with her and not where she said she was.. Steven McKenzie, the driver of the getaway car in the pawn shop murders, was arrested on August 1 in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Early voting has begun. He thought back to when Small took the gun. Asked if she remembered where she was when the murders happened, she recalled the morning clearly. Since police, sheriff's deputies, jailers and highway patrol investigators work for the state, if they turn up anything that casts doubt on the defendant's guilt, the prosecutor must hand it over to the defense. For starters, a key prosecution witness who testified she saw Flowers sprinting from the front of the store at the time of the murders, has been discredited, he said. After months of looking for Twanda Woods, In the Dark reporters located her a few months ago at her trailer in Winona, half a mile south of Tardy Furniture. 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. Reporters spent months combing through police and court records in Mississippi, Tennessee and Indiana to compile his extensive, and at times violent, criminal history. But that doesnt make Doyle a cold killer. Willie James Hemphill Birth 27 May 1919 Death 14 Jul 2000 (aged 81) Burial. Authorities put together alineup later that day of black-and-white photos, and she identified Flowers from the lineup as the man she briefly saw that morning when she came outside to move her car. Evans has spoken to the Greenwood Commonwealth, most recently about APM Reports analysis of his record of striking potential black jurors vs. white juries 4 1/2 times more often. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. They contained no mention of the Alabama suspects. January 5, 1960 - August 13, 2009. Presley and Gamble were extradited to Alabama, and again Gamble was questioned, almost in passing, about Mississippi. We encourage you to research and . I dont think they learned anything.. Maybe Doyle did the deed and reported his gun stolen to throw everyone off the scent. But at Curtis Flowers' trials, the prosecution downplayed any investigation of other suspects. Hemphill said investigator took his shoes for a few minutes as well as his fingerprints. If Woods had been at the mall with Hemphill at the time of the murders roughly 10 a.m. she couldn't have been back in Winona any earlier than noon. So, maybe Curtis didnt steal the gun after all. Share to Tumblr. According to the ledger, about$287 was missing from the cash drawer the morning of the murders. Prosecutors said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Williae Hemphill. His father had, for just a few months, been the first sheriff in the county, but returned to farming his land. ", "I was nowhere near the scene," he said. The suspects include the gunman in an Alabama crime spree that summer that bore several similarities to the Winona killings and a violent career criminal who at the time of the murders was living with a girlfriend across from the furniture store. That might not be so if the whole world wasnt watching, but it is. Their reporters know better than anyone that Hemphill wouldnt get a fair trial. That night, according to Moore, Hemphill was home with an ounce of marijuana, some of which they smoked together. The weapon in at least some of the Alabama cases was a .380 handgun that tended to jam. Hemphill seemed surprised when reminded that he'd told In the Dark in June 2018 that he was with an old friend named Twanda Woods. James Graham, was a blues pianist and her mother, Virgie Lee Graham, was skilled in many instruments, though she did not . 1 hr 4 min . A series of Willie James Hemphill mugshots ranging from 2000 through 2016. Evidence that prosecution witnesses may have given false testimony could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, said Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University. When Snow told police that the man she saw was about 5-foot-6, investigator John Johnson corrected her, saying she had already given the heights as 5-foot-10, according to an audio tape obtained by APM Reports. Not long after Armstrong found the gun in October 2001, two police officers happened to pull him over for speeding. An early suspect in the murders, Willie James Hemphill, who has a long criminal history, lived less than a mile from where Armstrong found this gun in 2011. 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 . INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. The second best result is William E Hemphill Sr . Willie James Hemphill was born on June 2, 1941. . So, if Curtis didnt do this terrible deed, who did? By the end of the two episodes devoted to the Flowers case, they had all abandoned Curtis as a suspect. "You're confusing me. A photo array that contains Marcus Presley (No. It happens. The crime had a random and senseless quality to it. Hemphill said he was wearing his Filas when in walked into the Sheriffs Department. He said that while in jail he talked to Evans about the Flowers case, and he saw a chance to gain his freedom. Nine days later, on July 25, 1996, the bodies of two innocent people were discovered in a pawn shop in Birmingham, Alabama. He said he began working at Tardy Furniture on June 29, 1996. Find an Obituary. Yet despite a number of theft and drug charges, probation violations, at least four domestic violence convictions and a girlfriend who alleges he stabbed her 13 times Hemphill has managed to avoid a long stint in prison. Check resumes and CV, arrest records, places of employment, social media profiles, photos and videos, public records, skilled experts, publications and memorials . 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. Information APM Reports obtained from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department through a public records request shows Hemphill was held for 11 days in jail. Gamble told me that they saw a few licks while they were in Mississippi. Are you a wh*re?, Reporter: Did you commit the murders on Front Street? The similarities between the crimes were striking. And he was undeterred, at first, when he was told that Woods hadn't corroborated his story. He told the Commonwealth, I think these (APM Reports) folks are just coming up with anything they can to discredit the case. "I think we pretty much ruled him out from the get-go," Matthews testified. The first of these events took place last month when the US Supreme Court tossed out Flowers conviction. Evidence of false testimony by prosecution witnesses could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University, told the APM reporting team. Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. Hemphill's ex-girlfriend Monkra Moore told In the Dark that she and Hemphill lived together on the east side of Winona in 1996 and that he was at home around 7 a.m. on the morning of the murders when she was leaving for work. A witness whose statement put a man on death row for 22 years has performed a remarkable backflip, turning a case on its head. Store employees were threatened with death and forced to lie on the floor. 20181228 Willie James Hemphill Criminal Civil Records Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item.