Anthony has made mistakes. He committed two armed robberies for which he accepts full responsibility and punishment. However, he has always maintained his innocence in the murder for which he was condemned to death.
In 1990, at the age of 24, Anthony made a living as a small-time drug dealer in his hometown of Kingsland, Georgia. In nearby Jacksonville where he went to buy drugs he mostly dealt with a man known to him only as "Ice." At a moment when Anthony was desperate for money this man introduced him to another trade of hustling—armed robbery.
On Friday September 14th, 1990, Ice lent Anthony his gun and against his own misgivings and better judgment Anthony used it. That day he robbed a gas station and a jewellery store near Tallahassee, Florida, injuring two people with Ice’s gun. Both of his victims survived. Later, when he was tried for these robberies, it was proven that Anthony did not shoot to kill. In fact, he put the phone down beside the wounded gas station clerk so he could call for help.
Before returning to Georgia that day Anthony gave Ice back his gun. And, shaken by what he’d done, he promised himself that whether he was caught or not he would never rob or shoot anyone again.
On the day the murder is committed (Sunday September 16th, 1990 between 1.45pm and 2.00pm), Anthony Mungin has got alibis that can be checked with different witnesses. But nobody will ever check on them.
He spends the morning in Georgia with his cousin Angie Jacobs.
10.30 am : He meets an old friend, Brian Washington, and asks him if he can drive him to Jacksonville.
Between 11.30 am and 11.45 am : Brian collects Anthony. They arrive in Jacksonville between 12.45 and 1pm. Anthony meets then an old friend, Philip Levy. They talk for about 15mn and Anthony tells him that he’s going to go to ex girl friend, Donetta Due, on 28th street. Donetta is not at home, but her grand mother, Cora Reid, is and they talk for about 25 mn. He then meets Philip and Vernon (“Tank”), who he stays with for just under one hour.
Sometime after two o’clock, Anthony walks to 22nd Myrtle Avenue to see if Ice can lend him a car so that he can visit his girlfriend in Pensacola, Florida.
Anthony talks briefly to Ice, who tells him about a white car around the corner (it will be proven that this car has been stolen the day before in Jacksonville, when Anthony was still in Georgia). Driving off, Ice told Anthony that the gun was in the car he was lending him. Anthony didn’t want the gun but was stuck with it for the next two days during which he did not touch it.
Anthony then goes to Pensacola to see his girlfriend with Ice’s car and the gun for the next two days. He admits to his girlfriend there, that he has made two armed robberies and shot two people. Charlette thinks he must be kidding. Later, she will remember he confessed two armed robberies, not three.
On September 18th, Anthony leaves Pensacola to take the car back to Jacksonville and get rid of the gun. However, it is too late and the Police arrested him at home. Anthony gave himself up and they found the gun. He was arrested and taken to jail. The Sheriff of Camden County questioned him and Anthony, who was relieved to have been caught because what he’d done was weighing on his conscience, told him the truth.
At the time he didn’t know whether his two victims had lived or died. Yet he told the truth. He knew he was guilty of two robberies, but when the Sheriff questioned him about a third robbery he had no idea what he was talking about—and told him so.
Weeks later Anthony was extradited to Monticello, Florida. He received 20 years for armed robbery and attempted second-degree murder. In court he apologized to the man he had shot. He then was transported to Leon County in Tallahassee, Fla. where he received two life sentences running concurrent for armed robbery and attempted murder. He was also habitualized.
While in Tallahassee a detective from Jacksonville came to question him about another robbery and murder. Betty Jean Woods, a convenience store clerk, had been shot on Sunday, September 16th between 1:45 p.m. and 2 p.m. in the lil Champ store off interstate I-10 in Jacksonville. She died in the hospital four days later. Anthony told the detective he knew nothing of this. The detective broke one of Anthony’s fingers trying to make him confess, but Anthony would not confess to something he did not do.
Not long after this incident Anthony was sent to prison. Four months into his concurrent life sentences, the Jacksonville authorities charged him with robbery and first-degree murder of Betty Woods.
Anthony went before Judge Tygart who dismissed the case for lack of evidence.
Anthony went back to prison. Three months later Jacksonville returned for him. This time the robbery charge was dropped and Anthony went before Judge Southwood and the case went to trial.
Anthony’s court-appointed public defenders were Mr. Cofer and Mr. Buzzell, both from the public defenders office of Duval County in Jacksonville. Anthony told Cofer and Buzzell exactly what happened and told them of his alibis. Unfortunately, they didn’t believe Anthony and his case was never investigated.
The case of the Prosecution relies on the testimony of one single testimony: Ronald Kirkland.
The day of the crime Kirkland gave a description of the man he saw leaving the store. He told police he saw a very dark-skinned black male who he guessed might be 37 years old with a full beard and long jerry curl, weighing 130 lbs. and 5’8" or 5’10" tall. Anthony recognized Ice at once. When he learnt this he knew he had been set up. In Kirkland’s deposition with the detective four days after the incident and also in his June 18th, 1992 deposition, Kirkland told the detective he could not swear in court it was Anthony Mungin. Anthony, who was 24 years old at the time but looked far younger, was clean-shaven. He had a short military haircut and was described by witnesses who saw him in the Tallahassee and Monticello robberies as between 18 and 19 years old. There’s a vast discrepancy between these different witnesses’ descriptions.
Kirkland, who said he couldn’t identify Anthony under oath, changed his story during the trial, two years after the fact.
He told the jury he didn’t remember saying the things written in his deposition and that Anthony was, in fact, the man he saw that day. Anthony’s public defenders raised no objections.
Last, Kirkland identified a small dark burgundy two-door car, an Escort, that was parked on the side of the road a couple of miles from the lil Champ store as being the car he saw at the store. Weeks later when Kirkland learnt the description of the car Anthony drove to Georgia, he changed the description of the car to fit the car Anthony drove.
The prosecutor told the jury they found 24 sets of fingerprints and then quickly went to another subject. He misled the jury to believe Anthony’s fingerprints were among the 24, when none of Anthony’s fingerprints were found there.
None of Anthony’s alibis were investigated before or at his trial. No proper counter investigation was made, despite the doubt casted on the morality Ronald Kirkland, the only witness, whose past is filled with criminal charges.
Florida is the only State, which doesn’t need the unanimity of a jury to apply the death penalty.
Anthony was finally found guilty; by a vote of 7 to 5, he was sentenced to death on February 23rd, 1993 for a crime he did not commit.