There is a God
The Indiana Court of Appeals today reversed the attempted murder conviction and 45-year sentence of an innocent defendant I represented at trial, holding that the trial court should have granted the motion to dismiss by reason of collateral estoppel I filed on his behalf.
John,
Good for you for making a difficult argument in the first place and kudos to the court of appeals for finally buying it.
Congratulations – to you and to appellate counsel.
1Thanks a million, Jeff. It’s a huge load off my mind. The retrial was a mess, and I’m none too proud of my performance there, although the mess wasn’t entirely of my making. There were other strong issues on appeal that the court of appeals never reached. If the court of appeals decided the case in Tyrus’ favor based on one of those issues it would have meant yet another retrial, so this is obviously much better. Now we just have to hope and pray that if the attorney general petitions for transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court the Indiana Supreme Court will deny the petition. I’m thinking the uniqueness and peculiarity of the facts should be a reason for the Court not to grant transfer. It’s not like the scenario involved in this case comes up every day.
Appellate counsel’s briefs were outstanding. She was as convinced of his innocence as I was. I’m grateful that she allowed me to participate actively in the process and was open to my input.
2