By Jana Cone/reporter
TIFTON
May 20, 2008 08:30 pm
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Chief Superior Court Judge Gary McCorvey, who has a reputation for being tough on crime, last month made a ruling in a Wayne County case that has disappointed residents in Jesup where the crimes took place. In a 200-page ruling made public the first week in May, McCorvey ordered a new trial for Larry Lee, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1986 murders of Clifford Jones, 48, Nina Jones, 47, and their 14-year-old son, Jerold.
The murders took place during a home invasion and robbery in which a money bag containing $1,500 in cash was taken. According to evidence at Lee’s trial, Lee had two accomplices in the slayings: Bruce Lee, Larry Lee’s brother, and Sherry Lee, wife of Bruce Lee.
The Jones family owned Reedy Creek Restaurant and lived across the street from their restaurant in rural Jesup near the Wayne-Appling County line. They were known to keep cash from the restaurant. Clifford Jones was stabbed, beaten and shot six times. Nina Jones was shot three times. Jerold Jones was beaten with a pistol, stabbed in the back and then shot.
Larry Lee was convicted on Nov. 24, 1987, and has been on death row since that time. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Lee’s conviction and death sentence but ordered the case be reviewed for possible mistakes or misconduct.
McCorvey told The Gazette on Monday that he had been assigned the case in 1998 or 1999. “The Tifton circuit is part of the Second Judicial District,” McCorvey explained. He said Lee was housed in Jackson in Butts County and that they handle a large number of habeus corpus writs but are not able to handle all of them. “Sitting judges of the Superior Courts are assigned on a rotating basis,” McCorvey said.
McCorvey said after the review of the case he ordered a new trial for Lee based on two main points: Ineffective assistance of counsel and the prosecution’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence (favorable) to the defense. Lee’s attorney was Alex Zipperer of Savannah.
A Savannah newspaper reported that District Attorney Stephen Kelley said he will consult with prosecutors in the Attorney General’s office and plans to appeal McCorvey’s ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court. Kelley said that if the Supreme Court failed to reverse McCorvey’s ruling, he would retry the case.
Both of Lee’s alleged accomplices in the case, Bruce and Sherry Lee, are now deceased.
“Everyone has to go by the rules,” McCorvey said. “That includes the prosecutors and the judges.”
McCorvey said Monday that he was also concerned that there was no forensic evidence in the case and no physical link to Lee. McCorvey said in his ruling that Lee had been convicted solely on the testimony of a jailhouse snitch and Sherry Lee, the getaway driver, who was granted immunity in the case. McCorvey said their testimony was questionable because of inconsistent and conflicting statements.
McCorvey also expressed concern that Lee was only represented by one attorney in a death penalty case. “This was contrary to a long-standing practice in Georgia to appoint two attorneys to a capital case,” he said.
Christi Jones, a surviving child of Clifford and Nina Jones, was quoted in the Jacksonville Times-Union after McCorvey’s ruling as saying, “I really hope we can win this appeal. I don’t want them (her family) to have to go through another trial.” Jones had left her family home just 15 minutes prior to the murder of her father, mother and brother.
A phone call to District Attorney Stephen Kelley had not been returned at press time.
To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.
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