During this Easter holiday, terms like redemption, atonement, and repenting for one’s sins become central to Jesus dying for our sins on the Cross. Redemption is the work of Christ atoning for our faults and mistakes by sacrificing his own life for us. When we seek to become more Christ-like, we follow his example. If we follow his example, we take action to correct previous wrongdoings either through a direct action to undo the consequences of that bad act or show some other expression of remorse. When seeking redemption from our faults and mistakes, we have learned to recognize that we should turn to God in prayer, repent for our wrongdoings, and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
The privilege of repenting for our sins is made possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. To repent, we must first recognize that we have sinned. If we can’t recognize our sins, we can’t repent. Once we recognize our sins, we must feel sincere sorrow for the terrible things that we have done. We must humble ourselves before God. If there is true sorrow, we will forsake our sins by stopping what we have done in the past and not repeating it in the future. After we have forsaken our sins, we must confess our sins to the Lord and, in a perfect world, confess our sins to the people we have hurt. Then, we must do some form of restorative justice by letting the truth be known, righting a wrong, or restoring the good name of a person that we have harmed.
It is hard to imagine the guilt a district attorney, a detective, or a jailhouse snitch who perjured themselves or fabricated evidence in the trial of Christina Williams must feel sitting in Church this Easter Sunday morning. How do you ask for forgiveness for your sins from our Lord and Savior, knowing that an innocent person, Christina Williams, will die in prison for a crime she did not commit because you lied? You know that you have the moral obligation to correct this wrong. Restorative justice requires the district attorney, detectives, and jailhouse snitches to take corrective action to repair the damage they caused to Christina Williams by confessing the truth and giving her life back to her.
The public can help encourage this process by demanding justice and helping to find the gun that was used and the shoes that were worn by Cecil Conley when he committed the murders of Nina Mannering and Gary Markins. Everyone loves to be part of a treasure hunt and see that true justice is finally served.
Cecil Conley, the man who admitted to the murders, recently revealed a more precise location of the shoes he was wearing on the day of the murder and the gun he used by looking at street view pictures on Google Earth that were recently shared with him.
The first picture, Google address 7499 OH-348, shows the barn off of 348 that you go past towards State Highway 73.
State Highway 73 is just a couple of miles down the road from this location. Once you pass the barn, in less than 1000 feet, Google picture address 7301 OH-348 is where the shoes and the gun are located.
Mr. Conley stated when looking at this picture that “the photographer was standing literally within a few hundred feet of the shoes and the gun.” He also stated that he is “100% sure that the first shoe he threw out went left into the ditch”, but he can’t remember the second shoe for sure.
When discussing where the gun went, he stated “dude it went out the passenger window into that little patch of pasture right behind you!! I was aiming for the little creek I could see!!!”. The clip for the gun can be found off 104 across the street from the blue house. Google picture address: 10073 OH-104.
While a treasure hunt is fun, this is also very serious. Nina Mannering and Gary Markins are no longer with us. Families and friends are still suffering from the loss 15 years later. Everyone affected by this tragedy should demand restorative justice to support finality and healing. Knowing the truth of what happened facilitates healing. Having innocent Christina Williams die in prison does not help anyone.
Read his previous Letter to the Editor. Challenging the Verdict: The Christina Williams Case Reexamined