Hearing conducted in Albany death row inmate’s case

ALBANY — Attorneys for death row inmate Marcus Ray Johnson have been given time to produce transcripts showing a Dougherty Superior Court oral order on DNA testing following a Thursday hearing for Johnson, who is seeking a new trial.

Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of Angela Sizemore near Fundamentals, a west Albany nightclub, but received a temporary stay of execution on Oct 5, 2011, pending an evidentiary hearing.

Johnson and his attorney, Brian Kammer, are asking that a new trial be granted based on original crime scene evidence that they contend was inadequately tested or not tested, including several hairs found in Sizemore’s truck that were presumed to be the victim’s, DNA testing of fingerprints lifted from the victim’s vehicle, and DNA testing of a blood found in a soil sample taken from the crime scene.

Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards stated at the hearing that it was his belief that if full testing were granted by the court, it could only serve to incriminate another suspect while leaving Johnson’s case unaffected.

Kammer stated that during the latter part of Johnson’s trial, Chief Judge Willie Lockette, who conducted Thursday’s hearing, orally ordered a type of testing for the soil sample that would have established the blood as male or female. Because of a “drafting error,” Kammer said, the wrong type of testing was ordered. If the DNA testing showed the blood was not Sizemore’s, it would take the assumed crime location out of the picture, Kammer contends.

Lockette ended the hearing by announcing he was “near the point of making a decision,” and asking the attorneys to check court transcripts for his oral order in the trial, giving Kammer up to a week to produce the wording.

According to the official record of the Georgia Supreme Court, evidence introduced at Johnson’s trial showed that Sizemore met Johnson at Fundamentals between 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. on March 24, 1994. The bar owner and its security officer, both of whom knew Johnson, testified that they say saw Sizemore and Johnson kissing and behaving amorously.

Court records say Sizemore had been drinking so heavily that the bar had stopped serving her. When Johnson and Sizemore left the bar together, the bartender handed Sizemore’s keys directly to Johnson. After leaving the bar, witnesses saw them walking toward Sixteenth Avenue.

Around 8 a.m., Sizemore’s body was discovered in her white Suburban, parked behind an apartment building in East Albany. The victim had been cut and stabbed 41 times and had bruises and marks from being struck and dragged. An autopsy confirmed that the fatal wounds punctured the heart.

Police investigators later determined that Sizemore was murdered in a vacant lot near Sixteenth Avenue near Fundamentals nightclub. Present in the lot were bloodstains, scuff marks, drag marks and a pecan branch with blood and tissue on one end.

Police said that when Johnson was arrested, he blurted, “I’m Marcus Ray Johnson. I’m the person you’re looking for.”

DNA testing confirmed the presence of the victim’s blood on Johnson’s jacket and Johnson was in possession of a pocket knife that was consistent with wounds on the victim’s body. Johnson was also said to have had scratches on his hands, arms and neck.

Johnson later stated that the victim became angry because he didn’t want to “snuggle” after sex and he punched her hard in the face and walked away, remembering nothing else until he woke up after daybreak in his front yard.