Tuesday, April 03, 2007

State Moves for Reconsideration in the Cynthia George Case.

Unsurprisingly, the Summit Co. Prosecutor's Office has moved the Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision overturning the conviction of socialite Cynthia George for complicity in the murder of one ex-lover by another.

WKSU last night headlined this a "turn" in the case. In fact it's barely a dip in the road. A Motion to Reconsider asks a group of elected officials to decide that they made a mistake and announce it publicly. It works about as well as you would think.

The Federal courts and a number of states have a procedure called a "rehearing en banc," in which the entire court of appeals, as opposed to a three-judge panel, reconsiders the case. It's a good intermediate step between the decision of the panel and review by a higher court. Supreme court review is discretionary in a case like this and generally only granted if the case involves some issue of broader legal import. Bottom line, Cynthia George has probably taken her last prison shower.

Unfortunately, Ohio's Constitution doesn't allow for a rehearing en banc. Maybe someday some miscarriage will so animate people that a real movement to allow en banc hearings will coalesce. Now that's a constitutional amendment I could get excited about.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't know socialite was synonomous with slut and convicted murderer. You are more generous than I am, how she gets a pass on this is so far beyond me. She had a fair trial and was found guilty-shouldn't that be the end of it. Disgustng, and a mockery is made of the legal system. WOW summit county has our own OJ now.

Anonymous said...

Well this is our justice system. They let the guilty go free just because their rich. Its sad very sad. But what goes around comes around.