LEAKESVILLE — A new sentencing trial begins this week for a man who has been on death row for more than two decades.
Jeffrey Keller Davis, 52, was convicted in May 1992 of capital murder for shooting and stabbing Linda Hillman.
The state Supreme Court overturned his death sentence in May, finding a poor job by his trial attorney may have cost him a chance at life in prison. The new sentencing trial was to begin today before Greene County Circuit Judge Robert Krebs, District Attorney Tony Lawrence’s office told the Mississippi Press.
Defense attorney Andre de Gruy will represent Davis.
Court records show that on July 12, 1991, Davis called the Greene County sheriff at home and confessed to killing Hillman. Davis waived his Miranda rights and cooperated with police.
Former Sheriff Tommy Miller, who knew both Davis and Hillman, went with a deputy to Davis’s home. Once there, authorities found Davis with his bags packed.
Davis told Miller, who has since died, that he had gone to Hillman’s trailer before 6 a.m. on July 11 to get money to buy drugs, court records show. Records show he had a history of substance abuse and was then addicted to cocaine.
Davis said Hillman had lent him money before but refused that day. He gave authorities the knife he used to stab her and told them where he had tossed his shoes and clothing in separate creeks.
The sheriff found Hillman’s body on a bed in her trailer.
The Supreme Court found that trial attorney George Shaddock failed to look for mitigating evidence, and could easily have found evidence that Davis’ father had abused him and that Davis had behaved well in jail.
