Free Republic

A judge in Atlanta left a courtroom gasping after he mistakenly delivered a devastating “guilty” verdict for a man charged with murdering a police officer — when the defendant was found “not guilty” on all counts. Judge Henry M. Newkirk on Friday botched the climax of the week-long murder trial of Alton Oliver, who was accused of fatally shooting off-duty Fulton County Deputy James Thomas in Dec. 2022. After nine hours of deliberation, the jury found Oliver innocent — but Newkirk left out a critical word, Fox 5 reported. “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty as to all six...

Georgia has executed Donnie Lance, reporting the time of death as 9:05 p.m. Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Lance’s appeals Wednesday evening, clearing the way for his execution. The high court, in two separate orders, declined to hear Lance’s requests that it halt his execution on grounds of alleged prosecution misconduct and lower-court rulings that denied his request for DNA testing. Content Continues Below The orders were published at least one hour after Lance was to be executed at 7 p.m. Lance was put to death by lethal injection for the 1997 murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend...