US Supreme Court declines to rehear appeal in 1996 Madison County murder

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from Azikiwe Kambule, a South African man who wanted to withdraw his guilty plea and stand trial in a much-publicized 1996 Mississippi carjack-murder case.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday led stand a Mississippi court's rejection last year of Kambule's argument that his plea was involuntary because he did not have a good understanding about the legal proceeding.

Kambule was a teenager in 1996. He argued in court documents that he knew nothing of the U.S. justice system when he entered into a deal in 1997 to plead guilty to charges in the death of social worker Pamela McGill and to accept a 35-year sentence.

Prosecutors said Kambule and Santonia Berry killed McGill in Madison County on Jan. 25, 1996, because they wanted the Jackson woman's red 1993 Dodge Stealth sports car. Her body was found nine weeks later when Berry led authorities to it.

Defense lawyer, Chokwe Lumumba of Canton, said there was no evidence Kambule fired the shots that killed McGill.

Kambule had come to Mississippi two years earlier, when his mother began studying psychology at Jackson State University. His mother and stepfather returned to South Africa several years ago after briefly living in Atlanta.

The case drew international publicity after prosecutors insisted on the death penalty even though Kambule was a teenager at the time of the crime.

A Madison County judge ruled Kambule's sentence could not be tougher than that for Berry, the admitted triggerman. Berry received a life sentence without parole after pleading guilty to capital murder.

Kambule was sentenced to 30 years for armed carjacking and five years to being an accessory after a murder. He did not appeal the sentence.

History

On the evening of 25 January 1996 Ms McGill, 31, was kidnapped at gunpoint outside her home and driven away in her car, never to be seen alive again. Two weeks later a tip led police to Kambule, then aged 17.


He confessed his role in the crime immediately. He said that on the evening in question he had been driving around Jackson with Santonio Berry, then 21. Berry, the driver, followed Ms McGill home, pointed a gun at her head, ordered her into the passenger seat and drove off, with Kambule sitting in the back. Berry stopped the car by some woods on the edge of town and led Ms McGill away. Kambule waited in the car. A few moments later Berry returned without her and the two drove off.

The day he was arrested Kambule led police to the woods where he thought Berry had shot Ms McGill but his recollection was hazy and the body was not found. Berry was arrested soon after. Although he refused initially to co-operate with police, two months later Berry led police to McGill's decomposing body.


Kambule Murder Case