Tyler Edmonds Acquitted
Tyler Edmonds is the 19-year-old Mississippi man who was tried and convicted of conspiring with his sister to murder his half-sister's husband. He was 13 at the time. In January 2007, his conviction was thrown out by the Mississippi Supreme Court (which, I might add, cited some of my reporting for reason in a concurring opinion). In ordering a new trial, the court struck the testimony of now-former Mississippi medical examiner Dr. Steven Hayne.
Hayne improbably testified that the bullet wounds in the victim's body suggested there were two hands on the gun that fired that bullet, consistent with District Attorney Forrest Allgood's theory that Edmonds and his sister fired the gun simultaneously. It was the first time the state's supreme court had ever thrown out Hayne's testimony in a criminal case.
Edmonds was retried last week in Starkville, Mississippi. While Hayne was again allowed to testify, this time, he wasn't permitted to give his two-hands-on-the-gun theory.
This afternoon, the jury acquitted Edmonds on all charges.
