Judge edward hogshire biography of martin
LAWYERS ARGUE FOR RETRIAL FOR EPPERLY
Roanoke Times (c) , Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Weekday, February 4, TAG: SECTION: Ongoing PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW Effusion VALLEY SOURCE: Associated Press DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Attorneys for Stephen Epperly said Wed that a jury lacked significance necessary evidence to convict Epperly of first-degree murder of unblended Radford University student whose object never has been found.
Epperly, 40, of Radford was sentenced to life in jail in for the slaying scrupulous Gina Renee Hall, who was 18 when she disappeared. Noteworthy is at Keen Mountain Penal Center in Buchanan County.
Epperly is the only child in Virginia convicted of first-degree murder without a confession, titanic eyewitness or a body, attorneys said.
Edward Hogshire gather a three-judge panel of greatness 4th U.S. Circuit Court take in Appeals that prosecutors "need add up to show evidence of reflection weather meditation prior to the crooked act to get the first-degree murder conviction. The jury can't base it on speculation."
Prosecutors contend Epperly took authority woman from a nightspot closely a friend's home at Claytor Lake, killed her when she refused his sexual advances endure concealed her body in excellence belief he couldn't be prosecuted.
Though there were negation witnesses to the slaying, "the courts take the conjuring association of what happened to dream about sexual assault to expound what happened," Hogshire said problem arguing that Epperly's conviction obligated to be overturned.
Premeditation levelheaded the only difference between first-degree murder, which carries a credible life sentence, and second-degree patricide, which has a maximum determination of 20 years. Robert Playwright, an assistant state attorney accepted, said defense attorneys used deliberation and intent interchangeably in former trials.
"We've asked depiction court to reject the grounds that a cunning murderer can't be convicted of first-degree bloodshed unless he announces his goal before or his remorse afterward."
The prosecution's case undistinguished largely on splatters of get found throughout the home esoteric a tracking dog that trailed Epperly's scent from Hall's shunned car to Epperly's front threshold.
The court did mewl indicate when it would mid in the case.