Appeal Hearing Of St. Clair County Death Row Case Denied

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, AL - The appeal trial involving a St. Clair County death row case has been denied again. Convicted murderer Michael Brandon Kelley was denied appeal for the seconf time this year, after also being denied back in January.

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Kelley was convicted in St. Clair County on two counts of capital murder and one count of sexual torture. He has been on death row since 2010. Kelley was 29 at the time he was convicted of killing 23-year-old Emily Lynn Milling, whose body was found off Markeeta Road in Leeds in November 2008.

The autopsy performed on Milling's body indicated that she had been tortured prior to her death. She had a bruise and skin tears around her right eye consistent with being punched. She had cuts on her head and ear, a bruised lip, and multiple brain hemorrhages. Her neck was scratched and bruised and she had multiple bruises on her chest and back. Her legs and arms, including her wrists, were bruised. She also had multiple cuts and bruises in her vagina and multiple cuts and bruises around and in her anus and rectum, including a cut in the rectal lining located five inches from the anal opening. The autopsy showed that the injuries to Milling's genital area were consistent with being caused by the toilet plunger that Kelley had thrown away.

It was further determined that Milling's was alive when her injuries were sustained and that her injuries would have been extremely painful. Doctors determined that Milling's death was caused by asphyxia resulting from strangulation.

Photo via Alabama Dept. of Corrections