The Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday declined to block a lower court order that threw out Sherard Eugene Ward’s first-degree murder conviction, clearing the way for a new trial, the court’s action left intact a Court of Appeals decision that found jurors were not given the option to consider a lesser charge.
Ward was convicted in 2023 of killing his wife, Marisha “Danny” Golden, outside the couple’s Oxford-area duplex on Sept. 4, 2020. Multiple neighbors testified they heard a woman scream “No!” before two gunshots, and one witness said he saw Ward drop a gun and flee. Golden was found bleeding in the parking area outside the home, and an autopsy found two gunshot wounds to the head and neck and blunt force injuries. Ward later told his father he shot her, according to court records.
The state Court of Appeals threw out the murder conviction in November, ruling the trial judge wrongly refused to instruct jurors on heat-of-passion manslaughter, a lesser charge available when a killing stems from sudden rage rather than cold calculation. The appeals court said circumstantial evidence — including that Golden’s own gun was used, that her blood was found inside the home before any shots were fired, and that Ward’s firearms had been removed from the residence the day before — warranted the instruction.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office said the appeals court substituted speculation for evidence, noting no witness saw Golden threaten or provoke Ward and that Ward did not testify at trial. The Supreme Court declined without comment to intervene. Ward’s voyeurism conviction from an incident involving two college student neighbors days before the killing was upheld and is not affected by the new trial order. No retrial date has been set. This is a developing story and will be updated as more details emerge.
