Re: Convicted killer may be retried in Marable case

[John Travis]

On Saturday, July 17, 1999 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, Jason...@virgin.net wrote:
> Convicted killer may be retried in Marable case
> By Kirk Loggins / Tennessean Staff Writer
> Jamie Marable's family had to wait more than six years for anyone to be
> charged with stabbing her to death in 1990.
> They watched as a Robertson County Criminal Court jury convicted Leslie
> Brian Willis in January 1998 of felony murder committed while attempting
> to rape the 19-year-old Clarksville woman. He received an automatic life
> prison sentence for that crime.
> But Marable's relatives received word yesterday that the Tennessee Court
> of Criminal Appeals has reversed Willis' conviction and sent the case
> back to Robertson County for a new trial, this time on the less serious
> charge of second-degree murder.
> "I'm in a state of shock," said the victim's father, Jim Marable, a
> retired Metro police officer who pressed authorities for years to arrest
> Willis.
> The appellate court said it believes Willis killed Jamie Marable and is
> guilty of second-degree murder, based on circumstantial evidence tying
> him to her disappearance outside a Clarksville bar on Sept. 8, 1990, and
> to the spot where her decomposing body was found, near the Port Royal
> covered bridge in Robertson County, three days later.
> But, the court said, there is not enough evidence of a sexual assault to
> justify convicting Willis, a construction worker, of killing Marable
> while attempting to rape her.
> The appeals court also said that Circuit Judge Robert Wedemeyer should
> not have let the trial jury hear testimony from a woman who said Willis
> raped her at knifepoint in 1985 and then threatened to kill her.
> Prosecutors "asked the jury to believe that (Willis) intended to rape
> (Marable) because five years earlier he raped a female victim in
> Kentucky," the appeals court said, in an opinion written by Judge
> Curwood Witt.
> "There is no logical progression nor any cause-and-effect relationship,
> only the extrapolation that, if the defendant intended rape of a female
> in 1985, he must be the sort of person who intended to rape Jamie
> Marable."
> That kind of "propensity evidence" is generally not admissible in a
> criminal trial.
> Prosecutors now have the option of trying Willis again, or of asking the
> state Supreme Court to reinstate his felony murder conviction and life
> prison sentence. He will stay in prison in the meantime.
> The maximum sentence Willis could receive for second-degree murder is 15
> to 25 years. He would be eligible for parole consideration after serving
> 30% of that sentence, under the law in effect when Jamie Marable was
> killed. He has been in custody for about 2-1/2 years.
> Jim Marable has become a vocal critic of the court system since his
> daughter was killed.
> He said yesterday he believes the judges who heard Willis' appeal "don't
> care about my daughter. All they care about is protecting his rights."
> "The public should understand that these judges are letting murderers
> and rapists out of jail over technicalities."
is he out now i sure hope not