Attorneys representing Warren King, a Georgia death row inmate convicted of murder 25 years ago, are alleging that the prosecutor in his case failed to disclose a deal with a key witness, undermining the witness’s credibility. King was found guilty of killing Karen Crosby, a convenience store clerk, during an armed robbery in 1994.
King’s lawyers claim that the assistant district attorney, John B. Johnson, struck a deal with the only eyewitness, Walter Smith, offering him immunity in exchange for testifying against King. This deal was reportedly kept hidden from the defense and the trial jury, potentially impacting the outcome of the trial.
Despite evidence implicating both King and Smith in the crime, Smith testified at King’s trial that King was the one who shot Crosby. King’s legal team argues that had they known about the undisclosed agreement, they could have challenged Smith’s credibility as a witness.
New legal filings reveal that Johnson and Smith reached a verbal plea agreement before the trial, where Smith agreed to testify against King in exchange for a life sentence with parole eligibility. This agreement was not disclosed during the trial, and both Johnson and Smith denied its existence to the jury.
Additionally, King’s lawyers are questioning the jury selection process, alleging that Johnson disproportionately excluded Black jurors from the trial. They point to Johnson’s handwritten notes, obtained last fall, which suggest that race and gender may have influenced the selection of the jury.
King’s legal team argues that the prosecutor’s notes provide clear evidence of racial considerations in jury selection, which is prohibited by a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision. Despite previous unsuccessful attempts to challenge his conviction, King continues to fight for a new trial based on these revelations.
