It was an unprovoked attack, according to prosecutors. A man kicked in the door and brutally stabbed an elderly Georgia woman to death while she lay in her bed at a senior citizen home. And on Monday, the murdered victim’s daughter pleaded with the Georgia Supreme Court not to let the accused killer off without a trial.
But the court has ruled in the man’s favor, setting him on course to get off scot-free… all because of a judge’s simple mistake.
The high court of Georgia said a judge can’t set a new trial for Geary Otis after having erroneously declared a mistrial in his case nearly two years ago. Otis is charged with murder in the slaying of 75-year-old Mary Oliver and aggravated assault in an attack on 71-year-old Emmanuel Surry.
“It was a mistake on the judge’s behalf. By all means, sanction the judge and give it to another judge,” Oliver’s daughter Jan Jacobs said through tears at a news conference Tuesday. “But he should not walk free. What kind of message does that send if we just let murderers walk free?”
It all began June 17, 2013, when police said Geary Otis ran up the stairs of a high-rise apartment building for seniors and stabbed Surry before kicking down a metal door and fatally stabbing Oliver. Police had to use a stun gun to subdue him, according to court records.
Otis, who was 64 at the time, was a resident in the building but didn’t know Oliver or Surry, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said. Oliver was asleep in her bed and Surry had just returned from taking his uncle to the hospital.
Otis was arrested and jailed. When his murder trial began April 7, 2014, public defender Amanda Grantham told the jury in her opening statement that Otis “just snapped.” The only possible verdict is not guilty by reason of insanity, Grantham told the jury.
Prosecutors were caught off guard. They objected, saying they hadn’t been notified of an insanity defense and needed more time to prepare. Grantham said she wasn’t required to give them a heads up because she didn’t plan to call any experts.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville said he believed the law required prior notice. He didn’t want to keep jurors long enough for the trial to be rescheduled, so he declared a mistrial. He said he’d put the case back on his trial calendar in a couple of weeks.
Grantham didn’t want a mistrial, though, and she challenged the judge’s decision. She argued that a jury had been seated and the trial had begun, and re-trying Otis would amount to double jeopardy, which is when a person is improperly tried twice for the same crime.
Glanville rejected that argument. Grantham appealed to the state Supreme Court, which on Monday said the judge had erred and reversed his ruling.
The justices said a 1995 ruling makes clear that the defense doesn’t need to provide notice of an insanity defense if no expert witnesses are to be called. That opinion came during the sentencing phase of a death penalty case, and Glanville interpreted it as only applying in that context. The Supreme Court disagreed.
In a concurring opinion, Justice David Nahmias said the Superior Court rules need to be revised.
“It is apparent that the trial court in this case was striving to produce a fair trial, but the court erred in not abiding by our holding” in the earlier case, Nahmias wrote.
Glanville declined to comment through the Superior Court’s public information office.
Howard said the high court’s ruling is “beyond belief” and “shocking to the consciousness of justice and fair play.” He said his office would request reconsideration.
If the Supreme Court declines to reconsider its unanimous ruling, Otis will likely be released in several weeks after being in jail for three years. The social workers in the public defender’s office are working to set him up with the help he needs.
Bryan Grantham, the husband of Otis’ trial attorney who joined the case on appeal to help his wife, said he doesn’t believe Otis will be a danger to anyone because he didn’t have a violent history.
“I think he’s a little shocked because he’s been sitting in jail for three years and, honestly, probably thought he was never getting out of custody,” Bryan Grantham said. “Now he’s got a second chance at life.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
The communist revolution is a success as they have infiltrated every facet of our society, business and government! This judge ought to face the penalty of the murderer would have received! UNBELIEVABLE AND EVIL!
Well, the sheeple are finally starting to figure out what I have been stating for years: we no longer have a free press but rather a state-run, fifth column propagandists that would put Pravda to shame AND BECAUSE WE NO LONGER HAVE A FREE PRESS WE ARE NO LONGER A FREE COUNTRY ! The sheeple just think so because they can still vote in sham elections, attend the Satanic “Stupor Bowl” and take legal drugs! R.I.P. USA, your ass has been had! We are no longer a nation ruled by law but rather a “Dick-taker-N-Thieve” and are witnessing a candidate that should either be behind bars or only running to the border to escape facing a firing squad, like her former pimp the Muslim-Marxist jihadist! Yes, most definitely there is a NWO conspiracy and it definitely is not a theory! Here are just two illustrations: A former 75 year old French Foriegn Legion hero is facing a year in prison for assisting in an “illegal” anti-immigration protest as he was manhandled by three or four NWO enforcers! How is it that the BLM and Muslims can protest but their is no free speech for those trying to preserve their country? How about Austria where a 10 year old boy was raped because the immigrant/terrorist had a “sexual emergency” that had to be gratified! This story was hushed and now the Satanic Left is ridiculing those on the side of justice and descency and calling them racists! Sheeple ha better get their heads out of their asses while they still have them as this mostly Islamic immigration ruse is being used by the NWO as the sledge hammer to break up the old in order to bring in the new, as in the NWO, one world religion ( State worship ) and one world currency as they are destroying world markets! REVOLUTION will be the SOLUTION, Armr===================================?, you will be needing them unless you don’t have a problem being slaves of the State and live a life of misery and squalor as the NWO elitists, our regime included, live the life of Kings – Obaa-baa-ma the Muslim-Marxist jihadist and Queens – the ole ugly commie whore Hillary the Pillory!
How does this grave judicial mistake have anything to do with a supposed communist revolution? Didn’t you read the entire article? This was a case of a mistake by a judge that resulted in a ruling of double jeopardy, a protection that was put into the Constitution. I hope you support the Bill of Rights.
Also, it really wasn’t the initial judge’s fault, but that of confusion caused by case law, which by the way is how most law in the US is enacted. Yet you want the judged lynched. Please read up on the problems caused by the almost slavish dogma of relying on case law and stare decisis. This egregious case is what sadly happens.
As for the rest of your comments, they’re not germane to this particular discussion although they’re important. The case of the 75 year old Foreign Legion hero, a retired general by the way, happened in FRANCE, not the US. Also, when and where in the US has the government agency BLM held a protest? Also, who in the US has been arrested for exercising their right to freedom of speech? The problem is they’re either ignored or drowned out by the progressive complicit MSM. Of course, there’s the problem of this regime using alphabet soup agencies to intimidate those speaking out against this rouge lawless cabal. Consider the us of the Infernal Retribution Sackers (IRS).
Also, rape is sadly all too common in our culture; worse in the US than in AUSTRALIA. But focusing on a single incident is a non-sequitur. Please post evidence people are “justifying” this incident. More likely they’re protesting extremists’ portrayal of all Muslims as potential rapists while ignoring the real threat that Islam poses to Western Civilization and why Trump was right about a moratorium on Muslim immigration until we have a means of properly vetting them, if even possible.
As for a revolution, it may become necessary to dust off the Declaration and take it to heart with a vengeance, but keep in mind the French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions. We first need to use all the tools the Framers gave us in the Constitution. It’s my belief our first revolution was blessed by God. Before we do another one, or anything else for that matter, we need to remind ourselves of 2 Chronicles 7:14.
So please try to stick to the issue at hand on forums rather than go all over the place and lose effectiveness. You message is too important.
STAY ON TARGET: be effective!
By the way, by BLM did you mean Bureau of Land Management or Black Lives Matter? If I recall, the TEA Party movement has held several protests. But ratrher than riot, steal, and burn, they left areas cleaner than they found them.
Recce1
That guy has posted the EXACT SAME comment, along with the exact same misspellings and grammatical errors, on several different threads lately. i’m thinkin’ he’s either a ‘bot or a provocateur or a troll who can be safely ignored.
Then they say that only Massachusetts, NY or Illinois is soft on crime. In reality those states give the harshest sentences,
He has a violent history now, well make the judge do the killers time, he made the mistake, an this is were a fatal accident needs to happen to, to this killer,
We The People, need to take to arms and get our country back!
The problem lay with the slavish adherence to case law and prior confusing appellate rulings. But you want us to be killers like the miscreant. Why?
Recce1: “Grantham didn’t want a mistrial, though, and she challenged the judge’s decision. She argued that a jury had been seated and the trial had begun, and re-trying Otis would amount to double jeopardy, which is when a person is improperly tried twice for the same crime.” I practiced law for 26 years, 15 was heavy criminal law. I have been retired for 15 years, but never read the law that way. If the judge declares a mistrial, the prosecution can retry the case, or decide not to prosecute. The prosecution wanted to retry it, so I don’t understand the big problem. I have had Georgia criminal trials where there was a mistrial declared, and if the DA thought the case was strong enough, retried it. If not, it was a win for the defendant. To me the Otis ruling is pure BS.
An appeal will be held by the KKK
Nonsense. Defense lawyers almost uniformly think solely in terms of winning or losing with no regard for what might happen to the rest of us when their “winners” wsalk free. All lawyers should be subjected to annual beatings.
Rodger: Your comment sounds like it is from a 3rd grade child.
This is why people don’t trust the justice system. The judge’s mistake means that an acknowledged killer is going to be released back into the world. The husband of the public defender got it right–this guy has been given a second chance. Will the murderer use the “chance” to try to make society better or will he use his freedom to murder and maim other innocent victims?
The released murderer may get to live the rest of his life with a certain amount of fear that someone will take it upon themselves to deliver the justice that he didn’t receive from the courts. That vigilante desire may come from the family and friends of the deceased or from someone connected with the stabbing victim.
I hope the innocent victim is amanda gramtham, but them she’s not innocent.
She going to set a killer lose. Pat yourself on the your back YOU FUCKING WHORE. In case you haven’t heard BITCH. FIRST AMENDMENT.
Look it up. I hope his next victims relatives SUE YOU. It seems that only the criminals have right and victim just get SHIT ON THEIR FACES. Are you going to go and PISS ON HER GRAVE. I would not put it past you.
Bobby, I public defender’s JOB is to represent their client to the best of their ability. Claiming her client was mentally ill was a legitimate defense. But you’d deny that and libel the defense attorney in a knavish manner. What does that make you, surely not an American patriot nor a Christian.
This happened to someone in my family, Mr. Otis wouldn’t make it more than 20 feet out the jailhouse door.
It makes him a foul mouthed idiot. I would rather have 10 guilty people go free than condemn one innocent one. Is this right? Heck, no, but our system is the best in the world. Bobby sounds like he would lynch the defendant, the judge, and the defense attorney.
If it was one of my family members I promise you I would kill.the bastard. Then call the pice and tell them who did and tell them to come hall the scumbag off
I agree with ya’all Gomer !
Off on a technicality. How stupid!!!!!!! No common sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re right. Sadly, that’s the problem with our almost slavish reliance on case law and stare decisis. We need a MAJOR overhaul of our legal system. In particular, we need to get it back to TRUE constitutional law. I wish more here understand that.
Thanks.
“Bryan Grantham, the husband of Otis’ trial attorney who joined the case on appeal to help his wife, said he doesn’t believe Otis will be a danger to anyone because he didn’t have a violent history.”
WTF, does he consider a violent history if an unprovoked stabbing of two people doesn’t meet that threshold. If he doubts it he can read the trial record where his wife pled Guilty by reason of insanity. Bryan, you’re a real “dick head”.
I agree, the husband is a dick for saying such a stupid comment. That lousy muderer goes free, to enjoy his life, and the victim is gone. So f-in wrong. The justice system truly sucks.
HELL I THINK HE’S GOING TO JOIN HIS WIFE IN PISSING ON THE VICTIMS GRAVE OR ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THE 5TH ON THE ADVISED OF YOUR WIFE ??????????????
What a lame comment. It wasn’t the defense attorney’s fault the judge made a mistake due to a prior confusing appellate decision. That’s the problem with our slavish reliance on the concept of case law. The system needs to be overhauled.
That’s wonderful that Otis got a second chance to be what?!! And by the way what about Ms. Oliver’s second chance. Oh, I forgot, she doesn’t get a second chance because she was GUILTY OF SLEEPING PEACEFULLY IN HER OWN BED. The job of whatever court may be involved in the trial is JUSTICE!!!!!!! Those who have failed this 70-year-old woman who was guilty of NOTHING deserve a little justice themselves.
I agree 100%
Maybe a good citizen will accidentally shoot Mr. Otis while cleaning his shotgun!
Sal Belardo you must watch what you say. If that would happen you would get arrested for inciting a murder. It has happened before and will happen many times again.
He snapped just like if the gloves don’t fit you must acquit.
TWO PIECES OF FUCKING GARBAGE.
Right on my American believers , i Texas ,spike ,Chuck. It could not have been said better ,
When will we really see justice .?
Maybe we should consider the alternative, H0 did that poor woman have a choice?
Shame on you judge for dropping the ball but it seems to happen quite often yes it is a sad time
Yes I think we all should start thinking about things the election is Coming now is our chance to stand up for this poor woman in the voting booth my friends go Trump !!
JUSTICE?? BACK IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS. CATTLE RUSTLERS CAUGHT AND NEAREST TREE. JUSTICE FOR THE OWNER.
Hell we could not that now. Must send them to jail 10-20 years and 3 hots and cot. Tax payers out 20-30 thousand a month.
So it does not matter that the guy is guilty only that the judge screwed up and is still judging, the lawyer used a technicality to get a murderer off and her husband thinks the guy is no longer a threat to anyone…what a disgrace but if he is insane then lock him up.
I agree with everything said here – including the use of profanity – because it seems that’s the only time the Media takes note (like when Donald Trump used the word p____y. But to post a comment we are asked not to use profanity. So – is it OK or not?? What are The Horn standards?
Back in the 1970’s ACLU lawyers established the new “human right” of the clinically insane to refuse treatment and/or confinement in the jail for the insane; since then all mass murders have been committed by such. Note: from 1917 till 1039 ACLU was the formal legal arm of the Communist Party USA; they formally separated after the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939.
America is sliding to hell on a greased pole, which makes me almost wish
this man had kicked in my front door and murdered me.
Only then would I be saved from having to endure what is going to happen!
None of us know the whole story. I am not saying I agree with the decision to release this killer. BUT.. if he had never done anything violent previously and given his age and that he was living in the retirement, is it not possible he went unstable as a result of many factors? Physical as well as improper medications, etc. could have caused it.
My heart goes out to the victims but this man deserved a defense. The defense attorney felt that there was sufficient evidence that she did not intend to call “experts”. It is a shame the trial did not proceed. Under an insanity plea, he would not have been released but would have received help. Now he is 3 years older, less likely to know the cause and to get help.
So, yes, the whole process got screwed up. I think all were trying to do their jobs to the best they could. Laws have become so complicated and entangled. They get made and never get reversed when obsolete. For example, it is against the law in California to eat oranges while bathing! And like in this case, it is not only laws but every decision that was ever made about a unique case that may or may not be like the current one.
So, stop with all this anger! Accept that we don’t have all the facts and put it in the hands of whatever higher power you believe in.
– like Otis needs a “second chance at life.” Only three yrs in the hooky? – for killing an innocent woman asleep in her bed. . .cowardice needs no reprieve, and neither do twisted judges.
WHERE’S CHARLES BRONSON WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
Or maybe Geary Otis will get a “second chance” to stab more people! And if he does, hold the Judges responsible and accountable for Otis’s acts!
Unreal. Murder gets off Scott FREE. My son is incarcerated for drugs and got17 mandatory years. Our system sux and is all corrupt crooked . If u have enough money if course you can pay them off. We are totally have criminals running our country. I don’t trust none of them. What a shame.
Recce1
i agree that the entire justice system needs an overhaul – or perhaps better yet, a return to the legal principles that made America great, those of Common Law.
From what i understand, Common law is very simple to understand and is not complex at all: if you damage anyone in their life, liberty, or property, it is a crime and should be punished. If you do not, it is NOT a crime and should NOT be punished.
What Americans seem to have done is neglected to read the law – or better yet, to be taught(in High School) how to read AND APPLY it. As a result, we have been subjected to a vast plethora of statutory “laws,” or at least most, in ignorance, submit themselves to those. i have heard from several attorneys that “statutory law is contract law,” and if true, then since contract law requires fully informed consent to be valid, and no prosecutor can show any such signed contract, most statutory law is inapplicable to Americans. i mean, how can judges presume a “social contract”(if that’s what it’s called)? After all, if i leave my car with a parking company and instruct them specifically to leave the car up on blocks, treat the tires with preservatives every 6 months, and start it every 2 weeks, can the company “presume” that since i have left the car in their care, they may then re-do the upholstery, repaint it, and install several thousand dollars worth of stereo equipment?
The whole doctrine of “presumed powers” is patent nonsense, to anyone who has a basic grasp of English and can comprehend both the Preamble to the Bill of Rights and the 9th and 10th Amendments, yet SCOTUS sails on, “interpreting” things into the Constitution that simply are not there and do not exist, effectively CHANGING the Constitution unlawfully – for there is a procedure for changing the Constitution by Amendment, but ZERO procedure for making rulings that change it, ergo any and all judicial rulings that have that effect are null and void…and further, IMO, any judge so ruling should be immediately arrested and tried for felony perjury, that is, lying under their oath of office.
In short, then, we don’t need a revision of the law so much as we need a return to it and it’s original principles.
If judges wish for additional powers, they should do so lawfully, that is, via Amendment with the proper number of States ratifying, instead of simply arrogating powers to itself which the Supreme Law of the Land does not authorize, aka USURPATION. Same with the head of the Executive Branch; show me any part of the Constitution or Amendments which allow a simple declaration by the President to become law? The President is to carry OUT the law, not make it. That’s Congress’ job. Yet “Executive Orders” are issued in contravention of the “few and defined” powers EVERY DAY. No one seems to give a damn, and for certain, no one has yet arrested any chief executive for making EO’s ab initio, even though the majority of them are clear violations of their Oath of Office, ergo primae facie evidence of felony perjury. i think i read somewhere that EO’s got their origin during the rump Congress left behind after Secessopm, when Lincoln wanted temporary “War Powers….” and that every president since has re-authorized his use of War Powers to exceed the lawful bounds of his authority as defined under the Constitution he swore an oath to uphold, all on the basis of “precedent.” Y’know, i’ve never seen the “precedent” exception to the Supreme Law – you know, where the Constitution says something like “But, if you can establish a precedent, then no matter WHAT the Constitution says, what you do is lawful.”
As to the case at hand, the judges have ruled – and unless and until a superior court reverses the previous ruling, it is what it is.
i have a simple solution: require EVERY CASE to be tried on it’s OWN MERITS, and deny the use of precedent completely. To cite a couple of the F&F:
“It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened
itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.”
— James Madison(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: “A Memorial and Remonstrance”, 1785: Works 1:163
“The people of the U.S. owe their Independence & their liberty, to the wisdom of descrying in the minute tax of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil comprised in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, in watching against every evil lurking under plausible disguises, and growing up from small beginnings.”
— James Madison(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President
Source: James Madison’s ‘Detached Memoranda,’ ca. 1817 W. & M. Q., 3d ser., 3:554–60 1946
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions64.html
In addition, this:
“Over the 20th century, the federal government has assumed a vast and unprecedented set of powers. Not only has the exercise of those powers upset the balance between federal and state governments; run roughshod over individuals, families, and firms; and reduced economic opportunity for all; but most of what the federal government does today — to put the point as plainly and candidly as possible — is illegitimate because done without explicit constitutional authority. The time has come to start returning power to the states and the people, to relimit federal power in our fundamental law, to restore constitutional government.”
— Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs for the Cato Institute
Source: Restoring Constitutional Government, Cato’s Letter #9, p. 1, published by the Cato Institute (1995).
God only needed to give 10 laws for the whole human rave to abide by!
If Obama had a grandfather he would look like that !