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Friday, November 30, 2007
Ind. Courts - "Justices hear appeal in Griffith slayings"
Oral arguments in David Green v. State were previewed in this ILB entry Monday. Today Patrick Guinane of the NWI Times has a report on the oral arguments. Some quotes:
INDIANAPOLIS | Attorneys for a Griffith man convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son three years ago asked the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday to cut the killer's 90-year sentence in half or order a new trial.The latter could put the death penalty back in play for David Green, who received consecutive 45-year prison terms last year for beating, strangling and stabbing Stacy Green in their Griffith home on Nov. 2, 2004. The Greens had been estranged for nearly two years, but Stacy was just days away from delivering the couple's third child.
David Green, 32, had not been charged when he gave prosecutors a statement that is at issue in his appeal. Green admitted to having a fight with his wife, but he said she attacked him with a knife and her death was accidental.
Lake County prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty in exchange for the statement, which later was presented to the jury over Green's objections. But David Green's attorneys told the Supreme Court the pretrial statement -- placing him at the crime scene -- should have been treated like a plea agreement, making it inadmissible at trial.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 30, 2007 12:19 PM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions