‘A procedural tragedy’: Case lost for two decades still in limbo

The fate of a Georgia defendant whose motion of a new trial was lost for two decades will remain unresolved this year after a December hearing failed to wrap up within the allotted time for all witnesses to be cross-examined.

The case is one of two significantly delayed post-conviction cases that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will oversee in 2025, as another lost 2000s case resurfaced this fall following The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s coverage of how Leslie Singleton’s case had languished.

In 2001, Singleton, then 17, was convicted of felony murder for his participation in an attempted carjacking gone awry. While he did not pull the trigger, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to life with parole. A court-appointed attorney filed a motion for a new trial three weeks later. But then 22 years passed with no hearing or decision. It wasn’t until McBurney received a July 2023 letter from Singleton that the oversight was discovered and the case was revived…

Story continues

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

TRENDING ARTICLES