Michael Anthony Jackson (born March 27, 1954) is an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death in 1984 for shooting and killing police officer Ken Wrede in

West Covina West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in August 1983. He is currently incarcerated in

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (SQ), formerly known as San Quentin State Prison, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated area, unincorporated place ...

Murder of Officer Ken Wrede

Shortly after noon on August 31, 1983, West Covina Police Officer, 26-year-old Ken Wrede, responded to calls of an intoxicated man that was disturbing residents. Wrede approached the man, who identified as 29-year-old Michael Anthony Jackson. Wrede attempted to handcuff Jackson until he lunged at him. Jackson obtained a shotgun from Wrede’s patrol car and shot the officer multiple times. Before being shot, Wrede radioed for help. But by the time other officers arrived, Wrede was already dead, and the officers detained Jackson. Jackson was arrested and admitted to taking PCP-laced cigarettes earlier that day.

Conviction

During the trial, Jackson's lawyers argued that he might have been severely high, which made him not legally responsible for the murder. On May 21, 1984, Jackson was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Jackson still had some supporters who believed that he was not in his right state of mind when killing Wrede and that it would be cruel to him. On May 9, 2000, with Jackson's execution date approaching, the federal court of appeals concluded that if all available evidence had been presented during the trial's penalty phase, there was a reasonable chance that he might have received a sentence of

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

. In a court hearing, judges criticized Jackson's lawyers for not mentioning that Jackson had been once diagnosed as

schizophrenic Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

, that the dose of PCP might render him legally not responsible for the killing. Nevertheless, Jackson stayed on death row. Since 2006, California has not executed a death row prisoner. Jackson, now 70 years old as of 2024, will likely not be executed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Michael Living people 1954 births 1983 murders in the United States 20th-century American criminals American male criminals American people convicted of drug offenses American people convicted of murdering police officers American prisoners sentenced to death Criminals from Los Angeles People convicted of murder by California Prisoners sentenced to death by California 20th-century African-American people

Murder of Officer Ken Wrede

Conviction

See also

References