Some 32 years after murders, Death Row sojourn may be ending

By Sid Salter
Columnist
Mississippi’s Supreme Court on a 5-4 vote denied yet another appeal from the Death
Row inmate convicted of brutally murdering Mississippi State University students Jon
Stephen Steckler and Pamela Tiffany Miller on the night of Dec. 11, 1992.
Willie Jerome “Fly” Manning, 56, was convicted of the murders in 1994 and has served
30 years at Parchman. While additional appeals, both state and federal, are likely, the
court’s action puts the state in the position of setting an execution date.
Manning’s attorney called the high court ruling one that ignored “newly discovered
evidence with the recantations of several key (prosecution) witnesses.” Krissy Nobile,
director of the state’s Office of Post-Conviction Counsel and Manning’s attorney, told
the Associated Press that with the recantations and “debunked evidence” there is no
“evidence linking Mr. Manning to the murder or the victims.”
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Mike Randolph wrote that (Manning) “has had
more than a full measure of justice. Tiffany Miller and Jon Steckler have not. Their
families have not. The citizens of Mississippi have not.”
On that fateful night, Steckler and Miller had been on a date. According to trial
transcripts, the young couple was last seen alive in the early morning hours of Dec. 11,
1992, outside of Steckler’s fraternity house near the campus. The couple left the house
around 1 a.m. in Miller’s car. At 2:15 a.m., Steckler’s body was discovered in the right-
hand lane of a county road.
Near his body, authorities found a gold token, three shell casings, and a projectile.
Steckler’s injuries were consistent with having been run over by a car at a low speed.
Miller’s body was discovered in the nearby woods and investigators believe she had
been sexually assaulted. She had been shot twice in the face.
Miller’s car was discovered in front of an apartment building nearby. On the pavement
near the driver’s side door, coins and a ring identified as belonging to Miller were found,
all about 100 yards away from Miller’s residence. In 1994, Manning was convicted of the
capital murders of Steckler and Miller in a jury trial after just one hour of deliberations.

Manning was sentenced to death for the murders. The most damning evidence against
Manning was his alleged attempts to sell certain items identified as belonging to his
victims.
In 2013, Manning came perilously close to meeting the executioner as punishment for
the murders of Steckler and Miller. Manning got an 11th-hour stay of execution on an
8–1 decision by the state’s highest court after issues were raised by Manning’s
attorneys challenging the testimony of FBI agents regarding ballistics and hair analysis
used to convict him in the Steckler-Miller murders.
In November, Republican Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a motion to
dismiss a second-post conviction motion and set a date for Manning’s execution. On
Dec. 1, the Mississippi Supreme Court temporarily suspended Fitch’s motion, ruling that
the court must rule on Manning’s latest motion regarding a challenge to his conviction
before an execution date can be set. Now, the court has ruled on that challenge.
Former Starkville police chief David Lindley told The Columbus Dispatch newspaper in
2013 his recollections of Manning as someone in and out of trouble with the law since
childhood. Manning’s criminal record goes back to the mid–1970s when he broke into a
store to steal a motorcycle. “Fly” was six years old at the time.
Manning continues to petition the appellate courts on the Steckler-Miller murders and
his defenders continue to tout his innocence. But in 2013, Democratic Mississippi
Attorney General Jim Hood called the evidence of Manning’s guilt “overwhelming.” So
has Fitch, a Republican.
“Even if technologies were available to determine the source of the hair, to indicate
someone other than Manning, it would not negate other evidence that shows his guilt.
He is a violent person who committed these heinous murders,” Hood said.
Most of the families of Jon Steckler and Tiffany Miller have died waiting on justice for
these slain students murdered in the very dawn of their adult lives.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.