OXFORD — A federal judge has thrown out the capital murder conviction of Quintez Wren Hodges, who was sentenced to death in 2001 in Lowndes County in the slaying of his ex-girlfriend”s brother.
U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills, in a decision released Monday, says Hodges” legal representation “was so lacking” as to render “unreasonable” a later Mississippi Supreme Court decision addressing several factors, including presentation of false evidence and ineffective counsel, during the sentencing phase of his trial.
Mills says District Attorney Forrest Allgood should have known that testimony given at trial by then-Assistant District Attorney Jim Kitchens, now a circuit judge, was false.
Kitchens had testified about the circumstances involving an earlier case in which Hodges was charged with burglary even though Kitchens was not the prosecutor assigned to the case and had no contact with the parties involved, according to court records.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports Mills also found that Hodges” attorneys showed the reasonable likelihood “that the jury”s verdict might have been affected as a result of the false testimony.”
Mills also cited improper and insufficient instructions to the jury about what its choices were for Hodges” verdict.
State prosecutors have 60 days to vacate his death sentence, start new sentencing proceedings or impose a sentence less than death.
Mills denied Hodges a hearing on other claims and denied him permission to appeal those claims not related to the sentencing.
Hodges was sentenced to death for the July 21, 1999, fatal shooting of Isaac Johnson, 17.
Hodges also was sentenced to 20 years for kidnapping Johnson”s sister, Cora Johnson, and her baby. Authorities said Hodges was the ex-boyfriend of Cora Johnson and the father of her child. The woman and her daughter were not harmed.
Authorities said Isaac Johnson”s body was discovered in the bedroom of his mother”s home in Caledonia. Johnson died of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Hodges” capital murder conviction and death sentence in 2005 and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal the same year.
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