Mississippi’s Attorney General is moving forward with plans to execute convict Michelle Byrom this Thursday.
Byrom is one of two women sitting on death row in Mississippi jails awaiting death. If the Supreme Court approves the execution then Byrom will be the first female convict since 1944 to be executed in Mississippi and the fifth woman executed in the past ten years.
Attorney General Jim Hood has requested that 57-year-old Byrom die by lethal injection for murdering her husband in 1999. Prosecutors say Byrom plotted the fatal shooting of Edward Byrom Sr. in his home in Iuka, Mississippi.
Advocates of Byrom are requesting a stay of execution to review additional evidence in the case, mainly evidence that Byrom’s son has confessed multiple times to committing the murder of Byrom Sr., who according to accounts, was abusive to the family.
Byrom confessed to the murder only after officers asked if she would allow her son to take the blame for the murder. “No, he’s not going to. I wouldn’t let him. … I will take all the responsibility. I’ll do it,” she said, according to a local newspaper. Furthermore, evidence of Byrom Jr.’s confession to a court-appointed psychologist was not heard during Byrom’s trial. Confession letters from Byrom Jr. were not allowed into evidence.
In letters that were smuggled to his mother while on death row, Byrom Jr. tells her that “Yes, the past is just that, the past, but certain decisions + choises (sic) are unforgettable and unforgiveable (sic),” according to CNN.
Byrom Jr. received a plea deal with a 30 year sentence in the murder for pinning the murder on his mother. During his mother’s trial, he denied all instances of his confession instead saying Byrom was the ringleader in a murder-for-hire conspiracy against his father. He was released early from prison in August on earned-release supervision.
Byrom has exhausted her appeals process and is awaiting the final verdict from the Supreme Court to determine whether she will receive death by lethal injection.
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