Honorable Judge William Chapman, sentenced, Mike Lynzy, to a term of 20 years in prison, with 15 to serve, and 5 years probation, under a Manslaughter Best Interest Plea, which admits no guilt.
Judge Chapman, told Mike Lynzy, “Because you selfishly stabbed, Dave Knapp, in order to get an ambulance for yourself, you have long hair, Hepatitis C, and have drank and drugged, all of these years, part of this is your punishment for that, and part of it is for protection of society.”
His attorney, Don Leland, said of Mike’s sentence, “It broke my heart. I nearly broke down and cried, it was just horrible.”
He went on to say, “His characterization of Mike, is so unlike that boy, and regardless of Mike’s past, It still does not give someone the right to come to your house, and try and kill you. He out weighed Mike by 71 pounds, and was 16 years younger. I don’t care if you have long hair, are sick, black, white, red, or green, those factors should have nothing to do with your sentence.”
I also spoke with one of Mike’s former co-workers, Wade Hutson, from Morrison Brother’s Music, and ask how long he had know Mike, and what he thinks of him. He said, “I have worked with Mike for about 5 years, and Mike is a great, very kind, guy, we were friends, and you could always count on him to do what he said he was going to do. He has been a true blue friend, I’ve never had a friend better than Mike. He came to us with glowing recommendations.
I ask him, when he found out Mike had a felony conviction 30 years ago, if that changed his opinion of him, he said, “Absolutely not, I’ll give you a prime example. After he was arrested for murder, he was allowed to come back to work the day he got out, so that should tell you how we here at Morrison Brother’s feel about him.”
In addition he said, “I learned more about Mike’s past, as time went on, when he confided things about his life in general. We all have our skeletons, have made mistakes.”
Mike Lynzy was attacked at his home at 2:00 in the morning, had big globs of his hair pulled out, suffered two fractured ribs, two partially collapsed lungs, had a beer bottle broken over his head, and then ground into his face, requiring over 50 stitches, it felt like his face was falling off, bleeding profusely, his contacts were gouged out, his blood soaked shirt ripped off, and blood was pouring into his eyes, and down his chest, and he feared he would die from blood loss.
After being attacked twice, he breaks loose, gets inside his home to try and find a cell phone to call 911, (After he has been repeatedly begging for someone to call because he needed an ambulance) can't find it, looks out his door and sees his attacker with his arm around his roommate, thinks he is attacking him, finds a knife laying on the kitchen counter, goes outside and stabs the man once to disable him, and the man dies while both of them are waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance.
Even though, by law, he is protected by the Castle Doctrine, the Pearl Police Department filed murder charges on him, and that charge remains for three years, until one week before court, they up it to habitual offender because of a 30 year old charge the man had when he was a teenager, one a crime he did not participate in.
This is a man that goes to work, takes care of his family, and has never hurt anyone in his life. Before trial they give him a competency test, but after giving him the test, take him off the medications that are used to control side effects, that include; seizures, hallucinations, confusion, weight loss, passing blood, and stand him before a trial judge, in that condition.
The man who attacked Mike Lynzy, Dave Knap, has bragged about busting people over the head with beer bottles before, and grinding it into their face, bragged that he has stuck people with a knife, twisted it, then pulled it out, back handed his 4 year old child with his fist, has a long rap sheet, and also left the person he told these things to, with the impression that he has also killed someone.
He was no angel, and I will leave his fate up to the one who knows the heart of all men, but right now I am concerned with the life of a man that tried to defend himself, his loved ones, and his home.
When I started looking into this case, I was undecided, but after hearing the facts, I would not have been able to convict him of murder or given him a harsh sentence.
What would you do, if someone came to your home at 2:00 in the morning and attacked you like that?
Most voters I have talked to have said, “If he had done that to me, I would have killed him with anything I could have gotten my hands on, regardless of, if I thought he was attacking my roommate, or I felt my life was in danger.”
I don't know what I would do, but if I was continually losing blood, and afraid for my life, and the only way to save myself, was to hurt the person who inflicted my injuries, and was going to let me bleed to death, I would probably do what ever I felt was necessary to preserve my life. That is human nature, and called survival.
Most people, who come in contact with our judicial system, come away feeling something is terribly wrong.
After what I saw in trial, regardless of whether I think Mike is innocent or guilty, the way things were handled in the court room, were a travesty of justice, and I am very angry about the things I witnessed.
People can continue to sit in front of their TV, their computers, their cell phones, and ignore what is going on all around them, or they can join together to stand up for what is right. If we do not stand up soon, before long there will not be anything left to stand up for.
If you reside in Rankin County, and defend yourself against unlawful attack, you will most surely be charged with murder.
This case was not about the past, it was about the facts, and the judge totally, and prejudicially, ignored the facts in this case.
He also ignored the law, as it pertains to, The Castle Doctrine.
Here is a link to the Castle Doctrine.
There’s no doubt about it – the U.S. criminal justice system is not perfect. And those imperfections become apparent when someone is the innocent victim of the death penalty. Wrongful executions have been happening for hundreds of years, but until the advent of DNA evidence and improved forensics technology, these individuals have remained guilty as charged. Today, DNA evidence has exonerated and released 15 death row inmates since 1992, but only eight inmates have been acknowledged of their possible innocence after execution by the Death Penalty Information Center. Here are 10 infamous cases of wrongful execution that deserve a second look: