Defendant on trial third time in officer killing
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A third Shelby County jury is deliberating whether Timothy McKinney fatally shot a Memphis police officer 16 years ago.
McKinney is on trial in the 1997 killing of 37-year-old Don Williams, who was working off duty as a security guard at Crumpy’s Comedy Club when he was shot in the head. Williams died a month later.
The first jury deadlocked, but in 1999, another jury convicted McKinney and sentenced him to die. Three years ago, however, an appellate court overturned the verdict, finding McKinney’s lawyers were deficient.
The Commercial Appeal (http://bit.ly/119OfEv ) reported among evidence presented at the current first-degree murder trial was the tape-recorded testimony of Williams’s late partner Frank Lee.
Public Defender Gerald Skahan told jurors there was a “rush to judgment” by the police department.
