A South Carolina woman had her murder conviction overturned after a juror allegedly spoke about the case to an outside party.
Jamira Davis was convicted in 2023 of the murder of her “father figure,” Brandon Bolen, who had an intermittent relationship with Davis’s mother. He died of multiple gunshot wounds before a fire destroyed his house.
Davis told police four different stories before admitting that she killed Bolen in 2021. She said she acted in self-defense.
According to Davis, Bolen sexually assaulted her by putting his hands between her legs. Davis said Bolen then grabbed her to prevent her from leaving.
Here is her story according to the court opinion:
“Davis fell on or near a large ottoman in the room, grabbed a gun resting on the ottoman, and put it under her arm and shot Boden while he was still on top of her. Davis was afraid Boden was going to rape her. After she fired the shots, Davis no longer felt Boden on top of her and left.”
During the murder trial, attorney Ashley Berry reported that she had overheard a conversation about the jury deliberations. Berry was not involved in the trial.
She reported that she heard, “Well, she told me that she can’t discuss the facts of the case. And the two of them were talking about how it was 10 to 2. And then the gentleman said one of the holdouts was a cop. And then he corrected himself and said, “Well, no, she’s not actually a cop, but a correctional officer or something.”
This alleged leak seemed to come from Juror No. 285, who was not questioned before Davis was convicted of murder.
However, the South Carolina Court of Appeals vacated the conviction. Judge Jerry Vinson Jr. wrote that the trial court should have questioned Juror No. 285.
“Because the trial court did not question the juror, the trial court could not have determined whether the alleged misconduct went to the heart of the merits of the case,” he wrote.
“Therefore, we hold the trial court abused its discretion when it failed to question Juror No. 285 about any communications the juror had with any third party regarding deliberations,” Vinson added.
