« Ind. Courts - More on: Confiscating a student's cellphone results in appointment of special prosecutor | Main | Law - Still more on: Louisville's "Jewish Hospital sues lawyers who unsuccessfully sued it" »
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Courts - "I was shocked it got overturned on such a technicality. That's something I would think a court in New York or California would do, but not Alabama."
Some quotes from this story today in The Decatur (Alabama) Daily, reported by Holly Hollman:
ATHENS — A woman serving life for capital murder in the alleged poisoning death of her husband may get a new trial.Here is more information about Dr. Pless. The newspaper includes a link to the text of the appeals court decision -- unfortunately it is to a damaged copy of the PDF document. I have sent them a note - perhaps it will be repaired and this link will work later.The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned the 2003 conviction of Kathy Diane Birge, 53, of Madison in Limestone County.
The court said the prosecution failed to establish a sufficient chain of custody for samples extracted from the body of Cecil Birge, Kathy Birge's husband.
"I haven't read the opinion, but from what I've been told, it sounded like a trivial technicality," Sheriff Mike Blakely said Friday. "I was shocked it got overturned on such a technicality. That's something I would think a court in New York or California would do, but not Alabama."
The court ruled that the trial judge, former Circuit Court Judge George Craig, should not have let the prosecution enter the toxicology report as evidence. The court said Craig also should not have allowed Dr. John Pless, an Indiana pathologist, to testify about the toxicology report and give his opinion as to the cause of death. * * *
Kathy Birge tried to have her husband cremated, but Cecil Birge's daughter from another marriage filed an injunction and was able to bury her father in Indiana. That's where his daughter lives.
When Limestone authorities discovered Kathy Birge had forged her husband's will, they exhumed his body.
Pless performed the autopsy in Indiana and took samples to test for drugs. During the August 2003 trial, Pless testified that the amount of drugs in Cecil Birge's body equaled 25 to 30 pills.
Pless could not identify everyone who handled the toxicology samples after they were locked in a refrigerator. There also was an unsigned report from the lab where the samples were transferred.
The court ruled this showed several missing links in the chain of custody and overturned the conviction because the report was "the crux of the prosecution's case."
"We do not reverse a capital murder conviction lightly," the court's ruling stated.
The court also stated that, "Only the toxicology results established that Cecil died of a multiple-drug overdose, and that evidence allowed the jury to conclude that the (prosecution) presented sufficient proof that Birge had murdered her husband."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 26, 2007 08:52 AM
Posted to Courts in general