Constance Branch. (VII, 687) Branch met the defendant at church in 1993.

Her parents
were strict and did not let her date, but they did allow her to date the defendant. (VII,
688) Both her parents approved of the defendant. The defendant was never violent with
her. (VII, 689) However, she knew the defendant also dated other women. She never
saw the defendant armed with any kind of weapon. (VII,690) She was supposed to attend
her high school prom with him, but he was arrested for the victim’s murder. (VII,692)
She was never contacted by anyone on the defendnat’s defense team. (VII, 693)

No cross.

Ernestine Branch. (VII, 695) Ms. Branch, Constance’s mother, testified similarly. The
defendant was always respectful and always had their daughter home on time. (VII, 699-
700)

No cross.

Toya Rice. (VII,703) Rice is the clerical records specialist for the Shelby County jail.
Her visitor logs covering the defendnat’s incarceration there from 1993 through 1995
showed no visits to the defendant by anyone on his defense team until February 1995.
(VII, 702-708) Her records showed that Mr. Johnson visited the defendant on February
2, 9, 21, 16. (VII,707)

On cross, she admitted that the records were dependent on someone making a log entry,
and if no entry was made in the log, the visit would not show up. (VII, 708)

Ophelia Jones. (VII, 710) Ms. Jones is the defendant’s aunt. Testified about abuse in
defendnat’s home, where he lived until age four. (VII, 714) She described the defendant
as a good boy who went to church; she had never seen him with a gun. (VII, 717)

No cross.

Velma Cowans. (VII, 720) Ms. Cowans is the sister of Oscar Jones, and had known the
defendant since he was three years old. (VII, 720) She knew of the abuse in the
defendant’s home. (VII, 720-724) She never knew the defendant to use drugs, carry a
gun, or run with gangs. (VII, 726) She testified that she asked trial counsel why he did
investigate more. She said that counsel told her he meet anyone but immediate family
and would not listen to her. (VII, 727)

No cross.

Louise Cowans. (VII, 729) She is the defendant’s cousin and daughter of Velma
Cowans. She was unaware of the defendant’s early home life. However, she had never
known the defendant to be involved in satan worship, carry a gun, or use drugs. (VII,
730-733)

No cross.
Renia Williams. (VII, 735) She was best friends with the defednat’s aunt and sister. (VII,
736) She said the defendant was a sweet young man and did chores for others without
pay. (VII, 737) She had never known him to use drugs or carry a gun. (VII, 738) She
was never contacted by the defense team. (VII, 739)

No cross.

Ketoe Brown. (VII, 741) He was with the defendant and the victim the day prior to the
murder. (VII, 742) He saw no indication that the victim was afraid of the defendant. He
never knew the defendant to carry a gun or be violent.

On cross, Brown admitted that he was in jail with the defendant, charged with attempted
murder. (VII, 744-745)

Vol. VIII.

Elizabeth Benson. (VIII, 757-818) Benson is a mitigation specialist with the Public
Defender’s office. She worked on the defendnat’s defense team.

When assigned a case, the entire team would interview the defendant and get a social
history and any history of mental illness. (VIII, 759) They talk to family members and
anyone else provided to them by the defendant. Benson conducted the social
investigation, while Christine Gelnn conducted the guilt investigation. (VIII, 767)
Benson did not testify during the guilt phase of the trial. (VIII, 778) Benson’s notes
reflected that the defendant received support from family and girlfriend in the way of jail
visits. (VIII, 772)

When she spoke with the defendant, she recorded the information on a social history
form. (VIII, 763) The defendant provided the names of Oscar Jones, stepfather; Bernice
Stephenson, grandmother; Larry Barnett, uncle; James Shaw, uncle; Alan Stephenson,
stepgrandfather; Yolanda Jackson, Joann Campbell, Fred Nesbit. (VIII, 764-765, 788-
790) Her paperwork did not indicate that she or anyone interviewed Oscar Jones. (VIII,
766-767) However, the attorneys could have interviewed him. (VIII, 767) Benson did
not review the attorney’s files. (VIII, 768) Her records contained no paper work of
interviews with others, and she could not remember whether she did because of the
passage of time. (VIII, 789)

Her records did not contain any report of an interview with Annette Nesbit, the
defendnat’s mother. (VIII, 768) However, someone else could have done so. Nor did
her records show interviews with Lashandra Nesbit, the defnednat’s sister, Oscar, Jr., his
brother, Bernice Stephenson, James Shaw, Larry Barnett, the defendnat’s
girlfriend,Jessica; (VIII, 770-773)

Benson requested the defednat’s school records. (VIII, 773-774) They showed low
grades only. She requested vocational work records, but did not receive any. (VIII, 775-
776) She requested his juvenile criminal records, which did not show much of a record.
(VIII, 778) She requested medical records which showed a head injury as a child, and a
possible seizure about a month before the murder. (VIII, 780-781) However, the
defendant told her only that he had the flu once. (VIII, 781) She did not have the
authority to order further investigation into the seizure, only the attorney could od that.
(VIII, 784) She could not recall, due to the passage of ten years, whether the issue was
discussed during case review. (VIII, 785)

The defendant told her he drank beer, but indicated no drug problems. (VIII, 787) The
defendant said he attended church. Nothing in her records showed any follow up. (VIII,
787) She could not recall whether she interviewed anyone about it. (VIII, 788, 799)

Her records did not indicate any information regarding a long list of people. (VIII, 790-
794) Due to the passage of time, she could not recall whether she talked to any of these
people. (VIII, 798)

On cross, she testified that she took the intake report at the jail accompanied by attorney
Lee Coffee, and that if the jail log did not show a visit by her, it was in error. (VIII, 809-
810) She did not accompany attorneys so did not know what they did or did not do.
(VIII, 810) She found nothing in the defendnat’s history that indicted mental
deficiencies. (VIII, 811)

Gloria Settles (VIII, 825) Reviewed mitigation work and opined that it was not good.
(VIII, 832-873)

Judge Betty Thomas-Moore (VIII, 875) Trial attorney. She could not locate any files
from the case. (VIII, 876) She only worked on the case for one or two months, though
she did recall spending a lot of time on the case. (VIII, 878, 885) Thomas testified that
Benson’s job would have been to interview mitigation witnesses and Christine Glenn
would have interviewed witnesses for the guilt phase. (VIII, 877) She could not
remember whether she did any interviews. (VIII, 879) She did recall meeting with the
defendant, with Johnson. (VIII, 879-880) She did not recall talking to family, but said
that it would be her practice to talk to family present when meeting with the defendant.
(VIII,881) Any person named during the intake interview would have been interviewed.
(VIII,883) She also recalled talking to O.C.Smith about the autopsy. (VIII, 885)
Something about closing argument. (VIII,892)
Jury instructions- 897-She could not recall what they asked for. (VIII,897)
Did not recall anything about mental exam(VIII,898)
Mental exam, special ed 903-

She recalled being surprised by a reference to satanic ritual at trial, but also said they
could have talked about it before trial, she simply did not remember. (VIII, 914-915)