Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Lawyers seek new hearing in 1998 homicide

- By Michael Kunzelman

BATON ROUGE, La. — A legal team has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its claim that Louisiana prosecutor­s withheld evidence for a murder trial that ended in a guilty verdict against an intellectu­ally disabled teenager accused of killing a pizza deliveryma­n.

Corey Williams was 16 years old when police arrested him in the shooting death of Jarvis Griffin two decades ago in Caddo Parish, where prosecutor­s have been widely criticized for their aggressive approach to seeking the death penalty.

This past week, a group of 44 former prosecutor­s and Justice Department officials — former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey among them — filed a brief in support of a petition by Williams’ lawyers asking the court to review and reverse his murder conviction.

Before the shooting, Williams was hospitaliz­ed for extreme lead poisoning, still sucked his thumb and frequently urinated on himself, according to his lawyers. A district court judge overturned Williams’ death sentence in 2004 on the basis of his disabiliti­es, one of his attorneys said.

Lawyers for Williams say there wasn’t any physical evidence linking him to the January 1998 death of Griffin, who was killed and robbed while delivering a pizza to a Shreveport home.

The petition claims “staggering” evidence of Williams’ innocence was suppressed by prosecutor­s before his trial.

Caddo Parish prosecutor­s have denied violating their duty to disclose evidence favorable to Williams.

Witnesses saw several older men steal money and pizza from Griffin and saw Williams running from the house alone with nothing in his hands after the shooting, according to his lawyers. One of the older men, Chris Moore, was the only witness who identified Williams as the shooter.

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