Clarksburg Exponent Telegram -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 8/31/2002
Last Visited: 8/31/2002
CLARKSBURG -- A special prosecutor told jurors to convict Johnnie Wayne Jenkins of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, not first-degree murder.
And before the trial, that prosecutor reportedly offered Jenkins' attorney a chance to have his client plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
But five years later, Harrison County's Jenkins, 33, continues to languish in the state penitentiary at Mount Olive on the first-degree murder conviction returned by the jury.Does Jenkins deserve a new trial?
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Jenkins was convicted in 1997 of the shooting death of Salem's Donald Ash and sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole in 15 years.
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Lees wants the court to order a new trial for Jenkins, who already has been tried twice in the case.
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-- That Pool blundered by promising jurors at the second trial that Jenkins would take the stand, then didn't have Jenkins testify.Pool and Lees clashed over this point.
He believed the decision was the right one at the time, Pool said.
If Jenkins had testified, it would have given prosecutors a big opening to discredit his client with testimony from other witnesses who otherwise couldn't have been called to the stand, Pool said.That didn't become clear, Pool said, until late in the trial.
Trial strategy changes constantly, Pool added.
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"My personal opinion," Pool said, "is they wanted to try to get someone in who could get (Jenkins) convicted and beat me."
-- That Pool didn't tell Jenkins about the plea agreements Romano testified he had offered prior to the trial.Pool, however, said no such offers were made in writing.And he said he recalled no oral plea agreements prior to the trial.
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