Murder of Kenneth Meers: Difference between revisions

After he was sentenced to death, Emmanuel Littlejohn spent about three decades appealing against his sentence, and in all of his appeals, Littlejohn argued that he was innocent and that he never gunned down Kenneth Meers. However, none of his claims were accepted by the courts.

 

On December 31, 1998, the [[Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals]] upheld the convictions of Littlejohn for the robbery-murder of Kenneth Meers, but his death sentence for the murder of Meers was vacated in favor of a re-sentencing hearing due to the need to reconsider the evidence so as to determine if the aggravating factors made Littlejohn eligible for either death or life without parole.<ref name="Littlejohn v. State (1998)"/>

 

A re-sentencing trial of Littlejohn took place in October 2000 and it ended on November 8, 2000, with the jury once again issuing the death penalty for Littlejohn. Littlejohn likewise appealed to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals against this decision, but on February 12, 2004, his appeal was dismissed after the court found his death sentence safe to affirm.<ref>''Littlejohn v. State'' [2004], [[Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals]] (United States).</ref>

 

In an appeal before District Judge [[Vicki Miles-LaGrange]] of the [[United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma]] on May 27, 2010, the lawyers of Littlejohn submitted that the same prosecutor who handled both the trials of Bethany and Littlejohn had argued at Bethany's trial that Bethany was the shooter and later argued at Littlejohn's trial that the killer was Littlejohn. However, the court found that there was no error made by the prosecutor, as the court determined that, during Bethany's trial, the prosecutor did not explicitly claim that Bethany was the shooter. Instead, the prosecutor merely "reminded the jurors that their job was to decide whether Bethany was guilty of malice murder or felony murder." The court also observed that in Littlejohn's trial, the prosecutor took a more assertive stance, firmly declaring that Littlejohn was indeed the shooter.<ref>''Littlejohn v. Workman'' [2010], [[United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma]] (United States).</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=July 5, 2024|title=Death row inmate reveals he's 'not sleeping' and protests innocence as execution date set|work=The Mirror|url=https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/emmanuel-littlejohn-death-row-execution-575633}}</ref> The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit|10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals]] heard Littlejohn's follow-up appeal and rejected it on June 25, 2010.<ref>''Littlejohn v. Workman'' [2010], [[United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit]] (United States).</ref>