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From: Pat
Date: 3/11/01
Time: 2:12:04 PM
Here it is Charlie
MURDER-LIFE The Georgia Supreme Court has affirmed murder convictions and life sentences in two appeals from Fulton County, but reversed in a third appeal from that county.
The reversal came in the appeal of Atlanta businessman Weldon Wayne Carr, who was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, arson and eavesdropping in the April 7, 1993, fire at his residence that claimed the life of his wife of 32-years, Patricia Carr, three days later. Carr v. State, No. S96A1626.
The prosecution's theory was that Carr set the fire after discovering through tape recordings of his wife's telephone calls that she was trying to divorce him for another man. But defense experts testified that the fire was accidental and that Carr had been unable to save his wife. Carr escaped the fire from a second floor window, breaking vertebrae in his fall. He alerted a neighbor, who called 911. Firefighters were able to rescue Patricia Carr from the upstairs master bedroom. Both of the Carrs were taken to the hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation. Weldon Wayne Carr was arrested in his hospital room the day after his wife died in the intensive care unit at Northside Hospital.
Chief Justice Robert Benham, writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, found that the convictions must be reversed due to the presentation of inadmissible evidence. The court also found that the assistant district attorney who tried the case "engaged in an extensive pattern of inappropriate and, in some cases, illegal conduct in the course of the trial."
"We conclude that the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable," Benham added. However, because the court reversed on other grounds, it did not determine whether the misconduct of the assistant district attorney who tried this case was so harmful as to require reversal.
The Supreme Court found that the trial court committed reversible error in allowing evidence of a dog's alert to the alleged presence of a fire accelerant as substantive evidence of the accelerant. "Carr argues on appeal that the evidence was inadmissible because there was no evidence at trial that dog-alerts have reached a state of verifiable certainty ... and that the error was harmful because it was the only substantive evidence purporting to show the presence of an accelerant," Benham wrote. "We agree."
The Supreme Court also found grounds for reversal in the admission of hearsay evidence concerning statements the deceased made to her sister, best friend, lover and neighbor. Although the court found the first prong of the necessity test from the admission of hearsay evidence was met--that the hearsay declarant was unavailable as a witness because she is dead--the other element of the test, that there be particularized guarantees that the evidence is trustworthy or reliable--was not satisfied.
"Given the circumstantial nature of the evidence in this case, and the emphasis in the state's presentation of the case on the state of the Carrs' marriage, we cannot consider the improperly admitted hearsay testimony to be harmless error," Benham wrote. "Its admission into evidence is reversible error independent of other error in this case."