Earlier this summer, the family of a murder victim asked Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks to speak up against parole for one of the two men convicted in the death.
“I did make that call. I don’t know whether it helped or not,” Banks said. “I have tried to block it every time it comes up.”
That’s been happening on and off over the years since the 1990s, and Dr. Brett Person, formerly of Greenwood and now of Destin, Florida, said he was notified recently that a parole hearing for Johnny Hemphill, an inmate at the state penitentiary at Parchman, would be held during the first part of July.
Forty years have passed since Hemphill, then 23, and Ned Moore Jr., then 24, pleaded guilty to capital murder and armed robbery in the death of Person’s 27-year-old brother, Jon, on Feb. 4, 1982.
Moore is housed at the South Mississippi Correctional Center in Leakesville. Hemphill and Moore are now in their mid-60s.
Dr. Person said family members wanted the death penalty for both men but were told at the time of their conviction that the men would never be allowed to leave prison. An article published in the Commonwealth in March 1982, however, reported then-District Attorney Frank Carlton said they would be eligible for parole within 13 years.
Parole hearings for each have been held for the past three decades, although both men have remained incarcerated. Each time a hearing has been scheduled, the family has asked public officials, including lawmakers, to contact the Mississippi Parole Board with objections to the inmates’ release, such as letters of non-support, and the most recent notification has resulted in another round of these requests.
The board is chaired by Jeffery Belk of Vancleave, a construction company business manager. Belk was appointed chairman in January.
Jon Person’s death on Feb. 4, 1982, at his home in Greenwood was brutal, according to documents filed in the Leflore County Circuit Clerk’s Office.
Person managed the now-nonexistent Sunflower Food Store, then a landmark on the corner of Grand Boulevard and West Claiborne Avenue, and he lived only steps away in a townhouse on Gwin Street.
After the store closed that evening, Hemphill and Moore came to his home and were admitted, according to court records. When Person did not report to work the following morning and could not be reached by telephone, his brother, Dr. Person, arrived, forced his way through a locked door and discovered his brother’s body in a bedroom. Jon Person had been beaten repeatedly on the his head with a hammer, and his throat had been sliced with a razor-type knife or box cutter. His car had been stolen.
The car, hammer and razor were recovered along with several pieces of silver, mail addressed to Jon Person, a hair brush and a case for eyeglasses. Police reported collecting more than 20 identifying fingerprints.
Dr. Person said he understands that the killers wanted his brother to open a safe at the Sunflower grocery store so they could steal cash. The safe, however, had a timer that would prevent it from being opened from the time the store closed each evening until it reopened the next morning. Also, his brother routinely deposited the store’s cash at a bank at the end of each day.
A trial was never held. Hemphill and Moore were arrested on Feb. 6 and blamed each other in statements to investigators. Within weeks, they decided to plead guilty to charges of capital murder and armed robbery. They were sentenced March 16, 1982.
Dr. Person believes Hemp-hill and Moore opted for guilty pleas because they were told the police had done a thorough job collecting evidence to be presented at trial and “they are going to convict you and put you to death.”
The date of Hemphill’s parole hearing was not available, and Dr. Person said he does not know whether his family would be allowed to attend.
Over the years, he said, “the Parole Board has been very cooperative,” he said, but Dr. Person worries that a day might come when one or both inmates are paroled. This, he said, would not be good for his hometown. “The problem for Greenwood is where they are coming back to if they get paroled,” he said.
“It’s not like they have gone and been choir boys in prison,” Dr. Person said. “They are not going to go away, and they are not going to work for a living. ... If they get out, they are going back to Greenwood and commit crimes until they die.”
- Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7241 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
