Robin FloresA federal judge set Jan. 30 as the date lawyers will argue whether a $20 million lawsuit against McMinn County by a man wrongly convicted and sentenced for execution in his daughter’s death but whose case was later overturned will continue or be dismissed.
Gussie Willis Vann filed the lawsuit from Morgan County Correctional Complex through his attorney, Robin Flores, in August, where Vann is serving back-to-back 25-year sentences for a separate rape conviction.
The lawsuit alleges that McMinn County criminal investigators Jerry Lynn Tate and Gary Cullins held Vann without probable cause for 48 hours and then denied him access to a lawyer for 10 months following the July 31, 1992, death of his 8-year-old daughter, Necia.
A jury later convicted Vann on murder and incest charges and sentenced him to death. On appeal he won a new trial but prosecutors instead dismissed charges and dropped the case.
Both Cullins and Tate have since died and the prosecutor in Vann’s criminal case is likely immune from charges in his official duties, Flores said. But he said McMinn County government can be held responsible for actions against his client.