New trial ordered for woman convicted of killing her husband

Credit to Savannah Morning News, 9 May 2005:

Edith Tillyne Sammons was convicted of murder in Bulloch County in the July 1998 shooting death of husband Gregory. The court ruled that she should have been present when the trial judge excused a juror.

A woman convicted of killing her husband has been granted a new trial because the judge met privately with a juror who was excused.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that Edith Tillyne Sammons should have been present when the presiding judge met with and excused a black juror, who expressed discomfort with the issues of race and sex in the case.

Nevertheless, the state's highest court concluded the Bulloch County Superior Court jury wasn't wrong in its verdict.

"After reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's determination of guilt, we conclude that any rational trier of fact could have found Sammons guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the crimes for which she was convicted," wrote Chief Justice Norman Fletcher for the court.

But Fletcher notes that the law requires that defendants be present for all critical stages in the court proceedings.

Sammons' husband Gregory was shot and run over July 8, 1998 after he had filed for divorce. She contends he attacked her when she stopped on the side of the road with car trouble while they were heading to a counseling session with their pastor.

Prosecutors argued that she had an affair with her son's black friend who was living in the family home, and that she staged the killing and wounds to make it appear her husband had attacked her.

After the judge replaced one of the two black jurors with an alternate, the 12 convicted Sammons, who was then sentenced to life imprisonment.

In her appeal, Sammons says she did not agree to give up her right to be present when the juror was questioned and that she didn't want the juror replaced, but her attorney at the time never objected.

"Because Sammons was absent from a critical part of the trial and she did not acquiesce in the removal of a juror outside her presence, the judgment must be reversed and remanded for a new trial," Fletcher wrote.