HIGHLAND PARK (AP) — Prosecutors have won a key ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court as they try to save a murder conviction in a case that took about 30 years to bring to trial.
The Supreme Court says the appeals court used the wrong legal standard last year when it threw out the first-degree murder conviction of William Lyles Jr.
He was accused of stabbing Andrew Weathers in Highland Park back in 1983.
The Supreme Court recently told the appeals court to take another look.
Lyles, now 63, wasn’t charged until 2012. Files and evidence were lost, but the case eventually was reopened.
The conviction was set aside because a judge didn’t give a jury instruction about considering evidence of Lyles’ good character in the years before he was charged.
- Posted November 04, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Prosecutors win key decision in 1983 cold case conviction
headlines Macomb
- All hands on deck for mock trial
- Man arraigned on charges including aggravated child sexually abusive activity
- Nessel urges residents to report threats, suspicious activity following Temple Israel attack
- Woman sentenced after pleading no contest to charge related to death of woman on I-696
- American Bar Association announces 2026 women lawyers of achievement
headlines National
- Did They Know the Score? Amid March Madness, questions remain about college athletes indicted in fixing scheme
- Google’s AI platform incited man’s death by suicide and ‘mass casualty’ attempt, suit alleges
- Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer, who has been linked to Epstein, exits with $25M pay package
- 2 lawyers convicted in staged truck accidents scheme
- Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors in $44B buyout, jury finds
- Federal judges speak out about threats becoming ‘ordinary’
