Tennessee Supreme Court Refuses Justice to Innocent Man on Death Row
P.O. Box 120552 . Nashville, Tennessee . 37212 . 615-329-0048
e-mail: tcask@earthlink.net
Promoting
Alternatives to Capital Punishment in Tennessee
TN Supreme Court Refuses Justice
to Innocent Man on Death Row
Paul Gregory
house Languishes in Wheelchair on death Row
TN Supreme court refuses to respond to the 6th Circuit court of appeals
March 11, 2004 – DNA evidence has now proven that Paul Gregory House did not rape Carolyn Muncey before she was murdered in Union County in 1985. In addition, two witnesses say the victim's husband, Hubert ''Little Hube'' Muncey, confessed to killing his wife accidentally after he had been out at the local community center, drinking and dancing. The jury never heard that testimony.
“Paul House should be given a new trial immediately or he should be exonerated and released from death row,” said Randy Tatel, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing. “The Tennessee Supreme Court is intentionally mistreating an apparently innocent man suffering from Multiple Sclerosis by refusing to answer the questions asked of it by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.”
The Supreme Court said that it ”respectfully declines to answer the certified questions.”
“The Court’s behavior is unbecoming of civilized people – it’s outrageous,” asserted Tatel.
In late 2002 the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati asked Tennessee justices to answer three questions, including whether House should get a new trial or other relief after presenting ''newly discovered evidence of actual innocence.'' Also, the appellate court asked justices to determine whether the death penalty was appropriate for House.
At trial, the jury found that the prosecution proved three aggravating factors, which are used to determine whether a defendant is sentenced to death: that the murder involved physical abuse ''beyond that necessary to produce death,'' that it was committed while House was raping Muncey, and that House had a previous sexual assault conviction. On appeal, the defense offered DNA evidence that proved the semen on the victim's body matched that of her husband, Hubert Muncey.
“The undisputed DNA evidence that shows that House did not rape the victim seriously affects the first and second aggravating factors,” the appellate court wrote last November, adding that the Tennessee Supreme Court had previously ruled admission of evidence on the third factor was in error. In their published opinion in November, judges for the U.S. Sixth Circuit wrote, “In this death penalty case from Tennessee, the habeas petitioner presents a strong claim of ‘actual innocence’ or ‘miscarriage of justice’.”
“I think there's convincing evidence of his total innocence and substantial evidence that another person who we were able to identify committed it. The man's been sitting on death row for over a decade,” said House’s attorney Steven Kissinger. “My cynicism is starting to become very high in this case. I hope it's clear to everyone that the state has everything to gain from Mr. House dying on death row of natural causes. His case involves police misconduct and concealment of fabricated evidence and reflects poorly on the justice system.''
‘This is exactly what Sixth Circuit Justice Gilbert Merritt was referring to when he told the TN Bar Association in September 2002 that ‘Tennessee’s death penalty system is broken despite years of reform’,” said Tatel. “It’s sick that a man with MS, one who receives poor medical treatment while on death row, can’t get the state Supreme Court to respond to a higher court’s charge that an innocent man might be sitting on death row."