In Case You Missed It: New Michael George Trial To Start December 2

In a late Friday decision that was surprising to many even with the families of both convicted and murdered assembling in a Michigan courtroom, the prominent retailer and convention organzier Michael George had his March conviction on various charges including murder and June sentencing of life in prison set aside in favor of a new trial by the man presiding over the first, highly-publicized court proceedings, Macomb County Circuit Court Judge James Biernat. George was convicted for crimes surrounding the 1990 killing of his then-wife Barbara in their comic book store in Michigan. The decision to re-try George is based on the judge's appraisal of prosecutorial conduct during the case, and whether or not this would have affected his own decision had this been a bench rather than a jury trial. It seems from a distance to this observer as much an indictment of prosecutorial actions such as a lost file that may have indicated a criminal suspect in the area at the same time as it is an appraisal of the circumstantial case made against George in the first trial.

The Michael George case was watched closely in the comics community because of George's role as a successful retailer and organizer for a once-popular Pittsburgh show. It was also bad publicity for a profession that had recently suffered another, similar conviction in the UK when former retailer and on-line comics broker Ronald Castree was tried and found guilty in the 1975 Lesley Molseed murder. It was also watched closely for the cold case nature of the trial, and it's safe to say certain lurid or outsized aspects of the murder such as the comic shop setting, the to-the-head gunshot cause of death, a financial motivation and reported affairs by George also drew interest.

I thought this was a nice article: an interview with one of the jurors. That person sounds not happy.

The new George trial gets underway December 2.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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