BLAIR, WALTER J.

General Information
DOB: June 29, 1960
Race: African-American
Gender: Male

Crime and Trial
County of conviction: Jackson
Number of counts: One
Race of victim: White
Gender of victim: Female
Date of crime: August 18, 1979
Date of sentencing: January 16, 1981
Date of execution: July 21, 1993

Legal status:

Last counsel of record:
Kent E. Gipson
Public Interest Litigation Clinic
305 E. 63rd St.
Kansas City, MO 64113
816-363-2795

Last judicial decision:

--Supreme Court's vacating of stay entered upon Mr. Blair's third petition for habeas corpus and the Herrera innocence claim that it asserted. See Delo v. Blair, 509 U.S. 823 (1993).

Reported opinions:

--Conviction and sentence affirmed on direct appeal by State v. Blair, 638 S.W.2d 739 (Mo. banc 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1188 (1983), reh'g denied, 459 U.S. 1229 (1983).

--Denial of post-conviction relief affirmed by Blair v. State, 683 S.W.2d 269 (MO. App. W.D. 1984).

--Stay granted pending resolution of first petition for habeas corpus. See Blair v. Armontrout, 604 F. Supp. 723 (W.D. Mo. 1985).

--Disqualification of Missouri Attorney General's office ordered by Blair v. Armontrout, 626 F. Supp. 512 (W.D. Mo. 1985) (observing that Mr. Blair's state post-conviction counsel had become an assistant attorney general within the office's criminal division), rev'd, 916 F.2d 1310 (8th Cir. 1990).

--Habeas relief denied by Blair v. Armontrout, 643 F. Supp. 785 (W.D. Mo. 1986), aff'd, 916 F.2d 1310 (8th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 825 (1991).

--Denial of second petition for habeas corpus affirmed by Blair v. Armontrout, 976 F.2d 1130 (8th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 508 U.S. 916 (1993), reh'g denied, 509 U.S. 915 (1993).

--State's motion to vacate stay of execution denied by Blair v. Armontrout, 994 F.2d 532 (8th Cir. 1993).

--Stay granted pending resolution of third petition for habeas corpus. See Blair v. Delo, 999 F.2d 1219 (8th Cir. 1993); stay vacated by Delo v. Blair, 509 U.S. 823 (1993).

Significant legal issues:

--Claim of actual innocence in light of evidence implicating state's witness and police informant Ernest Jones as the murderer

--prosecution's knowing use of perjured and/or disingenuous testimony, in light of Jones' eventual sentence to probation pursuant to a "deal" that was not formalized until after Mr. Blair's trial, and Jones' denial at trial that such a deal existed

--voluntariness of Mr. Blair's statement to the police

--claim under Swain v. Alabama, in light of prosecutor's removal of all four African-American veniremembers and documented pattern and/or policy by Jackson County prosecutors of removing such veniremembers in capital cases

--prosecutor's inflammatory argument asking the jury to consider to consider what the "attractive" white victim thought "when she woke up ... staring into the muzzle of a gun held by this black man."

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