PARCHMAN — An adviser to Gov. Haley Barbour on Wednesday defended the governor’s decision to give a reprieve to a convicted killer last week while not granting death row inmate Dale Leo Bishop his request for clemency.
Daryl Neely, policy adviser for the governor, told reporters at Mississippi State Penitentiary that Barbour had “developed a personal knowledge” of Michael David Graham and his case.
Graham, 54, has served 19 years of a life sentence for shooting his ex-wife while she sat in her car at a red light in Pascagoula. For the past eight years, Graham has served as a trusty at the Governor’s Mansion.
Bishop, 34, was executed Wednesday evening for his role in the 1998 beating death of Marcus Gentry in Saltillo. Bishop had acknowledged participating in the attack, but another man, Jessie Johnson, admitted to striking the lethal blow. Johnson was tried separately and sentenced to life without parole.
Bishop’s execution marked the eighth time someone has been put to death having not directly killed a victim. There have been more than 1,100 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
At a press conference Wednesday shortly before Bishop’s execution, a reporter asked Neely how the governor could grant a reprieve to Graham and not grant clemency to Bishop.
Neely responded that the two men’s cases were “not apples to apples – not even apples to oranges.”
Neely added that Bishop wasn’t eligible to work as a trusty.
According to Suzanne Singletary, spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Graham can live anywhere in the state. Singletary has also said that the commutation could be revoked if Graham does not meet parole terms.
