Woman in the death cell for murder, dismembered victims will not get a new legal proceedings

Jackson, Miss. (Wlbt) – Although she was forced to help her friend kill two people more than 20 years ago, Mississippi's only woman in Death Row will not get a new process.

On Tuesday, the Mississippi's Supreme Court denied a petition of Lisa Jo Chamberlin and said partly that her appointment is subject to a one -year bar and that it is prohibited to submit claims in previous procedures.

Chamberlin was sentenced to death in 2006 for the murders of Linda Heintzelman and Vernon Hulett.

Chamberlin argued that there was new evidence in this case and that it acted “under extreme stress or under the considerable rule” of her then friend Roger Lee Gillett when the murders took place.

She also pointed to an affidavit from Gillett, which confirmed that she was under his control.

However, the Court of Justice was “not to be observed” by this affidavit and wrote that it would not have led to another judgment if it had been brought to court.

“It is undeniable that in this case the victims were exposed to longer violence that was particularly hideous, cruel or cruel. In addition, Chamberlin's commitment is irrefutable, since their own confessions were not mentioned and assumed that they were repeatedly committed to killing the victims,” ​​wrote the majority in the footnote of the statement.

“A jury was for guilty Chamberlin as accused and it was sentenced to death at every number of capital murder. This court confirmed its convictions and convictions in direct appeal; and this court unanimously contested its first petition for security.”

After Hattiesburg AmericanThe couple killed Hulett and Heintzelman in May 2004. In the newspaper it says: “Heintzelman was stabbed, choked and stuffed into a freezer, while hulet was killed, dismembered and stuffed on his girlfriend through a blow.”

The court decided on the case with 8-1 vote, whereby justice Robert Chamberlin wrote for the majority.

He was accompanied in the opinion of Justices Mike Randolph, Josiah Coleman, James Maxwell, David Isheee, Kenneth Griffis, David Sullivan and Jenifer Branning.

Justice Leslie King War talked and in a fiery answer, the court took the task of not considering the new evidence, because it is not the application of the death penalty with the increased examination, which is necessary due to the “unique nature of the death penalty and … the eighth change”.

Instead, he quotes a line from an article in the Mississippi Law Journal, in which Mississippi's Supreme Court “in capital cases only has a long history of paying the lip service for increased standards and at the same time does not use such increased standards”.

Part of the argument was whether an affidavit from Gillet would have changed the result in Chamberlin's case.

Gillett was initially sentenced to death for his role in the murders. But his judgment was cleared by the Supreme Court and he received a new procedure. In 2014 he was again found guilty of two cases of capital murder, but received a life sentence after the then district attorney from Forrest County, which did not pursue the death penalty.

In 2023, Gillett signed an affidavit that he had the “complete control” of Chamberlin and that it “seemed best to thrive under strong influence”.

According to court files, Gillett continued that he had deliberately overdosed the Chamberlin with meth and had passed chamberlin at least twice.

An affidavit in August 2024 by Marti Loring, a clinical social worker, provided additional details and said that Gillett had tried to drown her at the pond of his brother in the Colorado mountains, suffocate and rap and rape them with one hand.

In her case, however, Chamberlin was painted behind the murders as a mastermind – something that Gillet also rejected.

“When my lawyer told me that Lisa was painted as a mastermind behind the murder, I almost didn't believe him,” he said. “It is ridiculous to believe that Lisa is the mastermind behind anything. Her participation was low and she would not have participated if I had no control.”

According to King, Gillett's statements should justify a new evidence hearing for Chamberlin and whether their death sentences should be cleared.

In a footnote, Justice Chamberlin said that the court recognizes the “gravity of capital cases and reaches his duty to check all cases with justice in the foreground” and once again pointed out other evidence, including the accused's earlier confession.

“Chamberlin confessed several times and several people, but never explained that Gillett had her for some reason. From our review of the records, it didn't seem that Chamberlin” dominated “by anyone, but was a willing participant in the robbery and murder of the two victims.”

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