My mom, Pauline Casey, was murdered on Aug. 6, 1990.
I recently received a phone call from the state attorney informing me that the man convicted of her murder, Ernest Suggs, would soon be executed.
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I’ve spent the past 35 years hoping to avoid that call. I believe the state convicted the wrong man.
Within hours after my mom’s murder in Walton County, police honed in on Suggs as the prime suspect. My mom used to call him her “friend from Alabama.” They were together earlier in the day before she was killed.
He had a criminal record, making him an easy target. They arrested Suggs less than six hours after my mom went missing. What little investigation they had put into other suspects ended there.
From then on, everything happened quickly: a rushed investigation, an arrest, my mom’s service, and the trial.
The evidence to support Suggs’ conviction was minimal. I knew there were other suspects who should have been investigated, but they weren’t. My questions and concerns went unheard and unanswered. I didn’t know how to correct a legal process that felt impenetrable to a traumatized 16-year-old girl.
Investigators never really questioned me about what I knew — and what I was afraid to reveal at the time.
Last August, police arrested my stepfather on charges that he had abused me as a child after I finally found the courage to come forward.
On March 5, 2026, he pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim 12 years or older, for the sexual abuse he committed against me when I was 14. Processing the loss of my mother was even more difficult, because of the abuse I suffered.
In the end, she had found the strength to stand up to him. With her loss, I had nowhere else to turn.
For several decades, I have found myself continuing to process what happened to me, my mom and Ernest Suggs. I read and reread transcripts of the trial and other court proceedings, looked at the evidence (or lack thereof), and thought about the investigation that was never completed.
I often try to figure out how Suggs was convicted of my mom’s murder when the evidence used to convict him was so weak.
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It rested primarily on inconclusive physical evidence and testimony of informants who had an incentive to lie.
The jury must have had doubts, too, because Suggs was sentenced to death by a non-unanimous jury decision of 7 to 5.
Current law in Florida requires at least eight jurors to vote for death. If Suggs were tried today, he could not be sent to death row on a 7-5 vote.
Even the original trial judge for Mr. Suggs’ death sentence to be commuted to life in prison because of the nonunanimous verdict. His case is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, where I pray the justices will see the evidence of his innocence and the number of alternate suspects.
As the daughter of a murder victim, I felt that the state’s interest in justice was only for show. They pretend to care about my suffering but in reality I’ve felt like a pawn in a flawed system for 35 years.
In 2013, the state attorney asked me for a statement about whether Suggs should be granted clemency. I told them I believed he is innocent and that I think the case should be reopened. My statement was ignored.
State officials have called me again and again over the years, giving updates about Suggs’ case and offering encouragement that it was moving closer to resolution — that is, his execution.
Each time, I told them I didn’t want Suggs to be executed, and each time, my plea was met with icy silence and a quick end to the conversation.
It’s not that I don’t want justice — I do. But while an innocent man sits in prison, the real perpetrator escapes accountability.
This is not justice for my mom, me, Suggs or the people of Florida. We deserve better than this. Suggs deserves a chance to present new evidence in his case. I only hope that this time, the courts and Gov. Ron DeSantis will hear my plea and ensure that an innocent man is not executed and the real killer can be brought to justice.
Laura Johnson lives in Weogufka, Ala. More information about Ernest Suggs is available at exonerate-ernie.com.
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