For nearly 20 years, Quincy Cross has been in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Now, with the help of attorneys from the Kentucky Innocence Project (KIP) and the Exoneration Project, his case is back in court.
Cross was sent to prison in 2008 for the murder of Jessica Currin, a young Black mother who was found dead and burned behind Mayfield Middle School in 2000, sending shockwaves through the community.
Multiple investigations into figuring out who killed her proved fruitless and the case went cold for years, until a pair of citizen sleuths got involved – providing momentum that ultimately led to Cross’s conviction.
A Hickman County jury found Cross guilty on charges of capital kidnapping, murder, first-degree rape and sodomy, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. For that, he was sentenced to life without parole.
Throughout the proceedings and over decades in prison, Cross has maintained his innocence. For years, Cross and his attorneys have fought for his conviction to be overturned.
The long road to getting Cross’s case back in court started with a series of motions filed in 2023.
The notoriety around Cross and his hopes for exoneration has grown in recent months, with the release of a new podcast from an award-winning journalist and producer dedicated to telling the story of the Currin murder, its investigation and litigation – and its many twists and turns.
On Thursday, attorneys representing Cross successfully argued that there are enough sufficient and relevant findings to bring about an evidentiary hearing before Special Judge Tyler Gill in the Graves County Temporary Court Facility.
Amy Robinson Staples, an attorney with the Exoneration Project representing Cross, gave a brief statement after the hearing was granted.
“We are very happy with the judge's ruling today giving us an evidentiary hearing. We look forward to the opportunity of presenting testimony from the witnesses in this case at that hearing that will ultimately go towards proving Mr. Cross's innocence.”
As Cross looked out at the courtroom via Zoom, Whitney Allen with KIP went over the new evidence she hopes to use to get his conviction cleared after more than 18 years in prison.
Gill, in granting the evidentiary hearing, limited what could be included by Cross’s counsel. The primary new evidence set to be examined – through testimony – are recanted statements and affidavits from multiple key witnesses in the case.
The judge noted, especially, the recanted statements from Victoria Caldwell and Vanisha Stubblefield. The two, along with Rosie Crice, were interviewed by authorities shortly after Currin’s murder. In that initial investigation, the pair named Jeremy Adams and Carlos Saxton as her murderers. Their story changed to one implicating Cross in 2008.
During her testimony in Cross’s 2008 trial, Crice said that she had been told to lie and was charged with perjury, spending five years in prison. Since then, according to a KIP release, Caldwell and Stubblefield have both recanted, alleging they were pressured and threatened by police.
Also in that release, the organization called the evidence used to convict Cross “deeply flawed” and claimed that several instances of police misconduct led to his being convicted.
David Cross, Quincy’s father, watched the proceedings Thursday in the courtroom. Since his son’s conviction, he’s become friends with Joe Currin – Jessica’s father. In recent years, they’ve both called for the case to be reopened. Currin told CNN in 2023 that he believed Quincy Cross wasn’t responsible for his daughter’s death and that he hoped the “truth would bring itself out.”
“We wanted the same thing,” David Cross said. “He wants justice for his daughter. I want justice for my son.”
Cross said he viewed the investigation into Currin’s death that sent his son to prison as “just a cover-up” and compared his emotional state regarding his son’s struggle with the judicial system to “toting 2,000 pounds on your back every day.”
Though he knows the legal process for his son to get another shot at freedom won’t be speedy, he said he’s thankful for this renewed push to get his son’s case heard again.
“[Quincy’s attorneys] gave me hope because nobody else wanted to hear it,” he said. “It feels a whole lot better, but it shouldn't have to take this to get people's truth out because everybody don't have the luxury of having somebody to help with a voice. I feel hopeful, but I'm not there yet. Quincy’s still in prison … but at least things are looking up.”
The evidentiary hearing is tentatively set for late November.
