SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – A Georgia man whose 2015 prosecution for murder ended in a mistrial can’t be tried again, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday, upholding a lower court that found the district attorney intentionally caused the first trial to be scrapped.
The ruling by Georgia’s highest court spares Monquez Jackson of Albany from facing a second jury in the 2012 robbery and slaying of Anthony Westbrook. Prosecutors said Jackson shot the victim in the back of the head and left his nude body in a dump after Jackson, his wife and her brother forced Westbrook to withdraw money from an ATM.
The trial judge declared a mistrial in Jackson’s case after concluding Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards made a misleading statement to the jury during closing arguments. The state Supreme Court agreed unanimously with the judge’s decision that a new trial would subject Jackson to double jeopardy.
In its decision, the high court said the trial court had broad discretion to declare a mistrial after it “clearly found that the DA made the offending comments in hopes that they would result in a mistrial. It found that the DA made the comments ‘intentionally and strategically after realizing the evidence was not overwhelming.'”
Edwards did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. In appealing the trial judge’s decision, Edwards denied that his statements to the jury were improper and said he wasn’t trying to cause a mistrial.