Jurors convict Turner of helping to kill Fisher

Reduced charge means no death penalty for him

Twelve years and two trials after Emily Klyce Fisher was stabbed to death in her Midtown home, a jury returned a puzzling verdict Wednesday that put a defendant at the scene without declaring him to be the killer.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated 11 hours over two days before finding Alfred Turner guilty of a reduced charge of facilitation to commit felony murder, which means they believe he aided and abetted someone else who did the killing.

Turner, 36, who has no prior

per employee.

“My only comment is if it makes flying more secure, it’s worth it,” said Neely Mallory Jr., chairman and chief executive of Memphis-based freight forwarder, Mallory Alexander International Logistics.

He has 75 to 100 employees who must have the assessments completed by March 15.

“Surprisingly, there’s been very little resistance from employees,” Chambers said. “I think a lot of people expected it in this industry.”

Deadlines were extended by 90 days last fall to allow companies time to comply.

“We’ve put in place a good regime that is multi-layered and random, making it hard for someone to predict situations, which is what terrorists do,” Chambers said.

For instance, during orange alerts, random employees will be selected for searches. Random cargo is also being searched by dogs in a pilot test in St. Louis that likely will be extended to other cities.

“ The checks with people, the training, the counter-to - counter screening, the dogs, all these different things are happening,” Chambers said. “It’s going to be very hard to break through all those layers to put something on a plane or do something with people.”

TSA will now manage the Known Shipper Database, a list of tens of thousands of shippers who until now were required to file detailed corporate information with each carrier.

“If we pick up freight from a customer not on that TSA list, we cannot move it on a commercial airline,” said Ray Skinner, local Pilot Air Freight franchise owner.

Couriers and truck drivers who have no access to airplanes but pick up packages that will go by air must be trained to report suspicious activity and complete an online test.

“We’ve probably spent somewhere in neighborhood of five to seven hours in training per person,” Skinner said.

While the government is not refunding training costs, some previous corporate background checks are being accepted, said Barker, in charge of compliance in Memphis.

“We can show up anytime we want to,” he said. “At the end of the day, all I want to see is that they are compliant.”