Tex McIver: Georgia’s Supreme Courtroom overturned a distinguished attorney’s murder conviction. Prosecutors now want to retry him
Claud “Tex” McIver was convicted in 2018 of felony murder and other costs stemming from the 2016 killing of his spouse, Diane, who was fatally shot by McIver even though sitting in entrance of him in a vehicle. The attorney beforehand told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the taking pictures was an accident and that the gun, which was on his lap though he was sleeping in the back seat, fired immediately after he was abruptly awoken.
In June, Georgia’s maximum court docket overturned McIver’s felony murder conviction, ruling that the jury should have been instructed that they could contemplate a lesser cost of involuntary manslaughter.
In a motion filed on Friday, Fulton County District Legal professional Fani T. Willis questioned the county excellent court to set a new date for the trial in just 180 times of acquiring the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The district attorney’s office explained it plans to retry McIver on felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm through the commission of a felony.
“The jury which served at the first demo of this case evaluated all of the evidence and unanimously convicted Defendant of intentional crimes of violence towards his spouse,” the district attorney’s office environment mentioned. “This actuality weighs heavily in the State’s thing to consider of how finest to provide the interests of justice in this case.”
McIver stays in the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections, according to jail logs.
In its request for a demo, the district attorney’s office environment said McIver is serving his five-12 months sentence for his conviction of influencing a witness, which the Supreme Courtroom did not overturn, including that although he “has not used five a long time in custody, five decades will have elapsed quickly.”
In a statement to CNN, McIver’s attorneys preserved their client’s former murder conviction was improper.
“The Georgia Supreme Court docket unanimously declared that the proof towards Tex McIver was weak. The Courtroom unanimously held that the prosecution behaved improperly and launched evidence at the initially trial that had no relevance or foundation in fact,” attorneys Amanda Clark Palmer, Bruce Harvey and Don Samuel said. “The Supreme Court docket unanimously reversed the faulty conviction. Now, the prosecution brags that it is only searching for justice. It is far better late than by no means, but justice would be recognizing that Tex McIver is completely not responsible.”
In overturning McIver’s murder conviction very last thirty day period, the Supreme Court docket explained that based on the evidence and testimony in the course of the demo, “the jury could have concluded that the revolver was not intentionally or deliberately fired, but somewhat, as McIver suggests, discharged as a result of his staying startled awake, reflexively or involuntarily clutching at the bag keeping the firearm, and inadvertently speaking to the set off,” according to the ruling.
The court docket even more observed that the evidence supporting McIver intent to kill his wife was “disputed and circumstantial,” adding, “No witness testified to any disagreement or quarrel amongst McIver and Diane, and numerous witnesses testified that they were being incredibly considerably in adore.”
