As Jim Kitchens sat in his office Thursday afternoon in the Lowndes County Courthouse, law books lined the shelves, black robes hung in a nearby closet and stacks of files and paperwork covered his desk.
The Sixteenth Circuit Court judge, donned in a shirt and tie after spending the morning in Noxubee County Circuit Court, reached for a file belonging to Quintez Hodges and skimmed through the pages, stopping occasionally to read over transcribed testimony from previous trials.
Kitchens has read through Hodges’ files extensively this week since Judge Michael Mills, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, released an opinion Monday which throws out Hodges’ death sentence from his 2001 capital murder conviction in Lowndes County Circuit Court.
Hodges’ conviction for the murder of Isaac Johnson still stands, but his sentence was vacated after Mills determined the jury in Hodges’ capital murder trial received inaccurate parole instructions prior to sentencing, Hodges had ineffective legal counsel, and testimony given during sentencing by Kitchens, who was an assistant district attorney at the time, was false or inaccurate.
Kitchens has come under fire this week for his testimony in the September 2001 capital murder trial, but defended his actions Thursday as he looked through Hodges’ trial transcripts, depositions and court files.
Testimony
The two main points Mills makes against Kitchens stem from his September 2001 testimony about a 1998 burglary charge Hodges faced in Lowndes County Circuit Court. Kitchens testified at the sentencing portion of Hodges’ capital murder trial that he had conducted the open plea for Hodges’ burglary charge in 1998. In fact, it was Assistant District Attorney Scott Rogillio who spoke at the plea, while Kitchens only sat at the prosecution’s table.
Kitchens Thursday said it was a simple mistake. No transcriptions from the 1998 burglary plea hearing were available until December 2002, 15 months after the capital murder trial, so Kitchens did not have a chance to refresh his memory on his role in the burglary plea prior to testifying in the capital murder trial.
Plus, Kitchens said, he had handled hundreds of cases in the three years between Hodges’ burglary plea and the capital murder trial, which made it difficult to remember all of the details.
“Was I wrong about me being the one doing (the burglary plea)?” Kitchens asked rhetorically Thursday. “Yeah. But I was sitting there through the whole thing. It was just a mistake on my part.”
Mills also said Kitchens made a false statement when he told jurors during the capital murder sentencing phase that the state had recommended Hodges serve 15 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections for the 1998 burglary charge, but Johnson’s mother, Bessie Tatum, didn’t want Hodges to serve time in prison. Hodges had burglarized Tatum’s home several times, according to court records, and Tatum finally called police in May 1998.
Transcriptions from the burglary plea hearing, however, show the state, while on the record, never recommended Hodges serve 15 years in the MDOC. Additionally, no statements were made in open court to indicate Tatum did not want Hodges to go to prison for the burglary charge, Mills opined.
Kitchens concedes the fact that Tatum’s desire to see Hodges serve time in the state’s Regimented Inmate Discipline program instead of the state penitentiary for the burglary charge might not have been made on the record, but he did say it was “inferred” in court and discussed extensively in chambers. He also believes a conversation between the prosecution and the defense during the burglary plea, which was interrupted by Judge Lee Howard, who then handed down a sentence, contained talk of Tatum’s wish for Hodges to participate in the RID program and the state’s desire for prison time instead, even though the exchange wasn’t captured on the record.
In Mills’ opinion, Kitchens’ testimony could have negatively affected the jury’s opinion of Hodges during the sentencing phase. After all, Mills said, Tatum had asked the state to spare Hodges from the MDOC for the burglary charge, then he killed her son three weeks after he was released from the RID program.
“In this instance, the state, seemingly unconcerned with the accuracy of the testimony to be given in a trial where the result could be death, provided the jury with false information,” Mills wrote. “That information was elicited to show that (Hodges) is a remorseless liar who was shown kindness that he refused to acknowledge and which he repaid by murdering the son of the woman who extended it. In light of these facts, this court concludes that there exists a reasonable probability that this testimony affected the jury’s judgment.”
Kitchens again Tuesday cited the length of time between the burglary charge and the capital murder trial when defending his actions.
“Some stuff was on the record and some stuff wasn’t,” he said. “It was a long time. I might not have recalled all of the events verbatim, but the gist was the same.”
Repercussions
The Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government from knowingly using or failing to correct false testimony.
In Mills’ opinion, District Attorney Forrest Allgood “should have known that the testimony given by ADA Kitchens was false” because the prosecutor’s office is considered a single entity and the knowledge of one assistant district attorney is attributable to others in the same office.
Allgood countered this week, however, with a letter to the editor which states he wasn’t even in the courtroom at the time and had no way of knowing what Kitchens said. He also echoed Kitchens’ recollection of the circumstances surrounding the burglary plea hearings.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood already has vowed to appeal Mills’ decision in 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Contacted Thursday, Tatum didn’t have much to say about the overturned death sentence. She has said in the past she does not want to see Hodges get executed for the crime because his death will not bring back her son. But Tatum did vow to support whatever actions the district attorneys take.
“At this time, me and my family is happy with what the D.A. has done and what the state of Mississippi has done,” Tatum said. “We are satisfied with the way things are going. Whatever and however the D.A. and the state handles things, me and my family are satisfied.”
The murder
Hodges was in a relationship with Tatum’s daughter, Cora Johnson, prior to the murder of Isaac. Eventually, Cora had a baby and Hodges was sent to the RID program for breaking into the family’s home in May 1998, according to court records. He also was under indictment at the time for the burglary of a school and for a burglary and attempted sexual battery at another home.
While in the RID program, Hodges received letters from Cora. In some, she proclaimed her desire to be with Hodges. In other letters, she taunted Hodges about her relationships with other men and said the child may not belong to him. DNA testing later confirmed the child did not belong to Hodges.
Hodges spent approximately six months in the RID program and was released in June of 1999, three weeks before Isaac’s murder.
On the night of July 20, 1999, Hodges tried to arrange a visit with Cora, but she was with a new boyfriend and would not see him, according to court records.
Eventually, Cora’s boyfriend left and Hodges talked to her on the phone. Cora hung up on Hodges around 1 a.m. after he refused to terminate the conversation, court records state.
Hodges then retrieved his mother’s pistol, drove his mother’s car to Cora’s home, parked two houses away and forced his way in through the back door of the house. Cora testified Hodges entered her room in black shoes, pants, gloves and shirt, with a beige mask. She testified he struck her in the
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