Byrom has been on death row since her 2000 conviction for capital murder. The 57-year-old woman was convicted of being the mastermind of a murder-for-hire plot to kill her allegedly abusive husband, a killing her son had admitted to committing in several jailhouse letters and, according to court documents, in an interview with a court-appointed psychologist.
He recanted when he was put on the stand, according to court records.
Attorney General Jim Hood, who had requested Byrom's execution, said Monday his office would seek the court's reasoning for the reversal.
"While we respect the Mississippi Supreme Court's decision, it is important that the trial court know and understand the specific errors that were found by the justices so that the lower court knows the best way to proceed," he said. "Our citizens can once again take comfort in the fact that we have a legal system that works for all parties involved."
The Supreme Court opinion noted that the decision "is extraordinary and extremely rare in the context of a petition for leave to pursue post-conviction relief."
Oliver Diaz, the former presiding justice of the Supreme Court, called the opinion "actually kinda amazing," from the order for a new trial to the ruling's release on a Monday instead of a Thursday, as usual.
"The lawyers filed a last ditch motion for additional post conviction relief. These are almost never granted. Defendants are limited to a single post conviction motion," he wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "It is extremely rare to grant and send back for a new trial."
Mississippi has rarely ever given anyone the death penalty, that being said it's both sad and interesting to see that this cruel punishment is going to someone of such unlikely stature. There again; she doesn't look like the type of woman to run a murder-for-hire plot. But, such is life.
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