Judicial Errors Result in New Trial - Articles

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Posted by: Amelia Ferrell Knisely on Sep 11, 2015

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial for Benjamin Foust on trial for a 2011 double murder, after the court said Knox County Criminal Court Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz made mistakes, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Judge D. Kelly Thomas Jr. issued an opinion stating Judge Leibowitz allowed jurors to hear a police interrogation containing irrelevant information about co-defendant Teddie Jones without listening to it first or holding a hearing outside the jury’s presence about it. “The trial court utterly failed in its gatekeeping function as outlined in (court rules),” Thomas wrote. The case now goes back to Knox County Criminal Court.