|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
12/30/2006Judge to revisit rulingTRAVERSE CITY — A Grand Traverse County Circuit Court judge will reconsider his recent ruling to give a convicted murderer a new trial. Judge Thomas Power this month granted James F. Gainforth a new trial based on poor legal representation by his original defense attorney, Michael J. Haley, now a local district court judge. Gainforth's defense omitted possibly helpful evidence from his 1985 jury trial for the murder and robbery of a gas station attendant at a minimart along South Airport Road. But Power neglected to fully consider how the prosecution would have argued against the omitted evidence and what impact that evidence would have had on a jury, county prosecutor Alan Schneider said in a motion for reconsideration filed this week. "I think that in this case the judge made a mistake in how he viewed the impact the evidence would of had at trial because it would have been different trial,” Schneider said. "He looked at it as a different trial from the defense's point of view, but it would have been a different trial from the prosecution's point of view, as well.” Gainforth, now 42, is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder and robbery of a gas station attendant in 1984. The fact that Haley failed to present evidence that Gainforth could not "sight in on a target” because of a pre-existing eye problem was the chief reason Power granted the new trial. Schneider argued that had evidence of Gainforth's eye problems been presented in his defense at the original trial, the prosecution likely would have pointed out that Gainforth "purchased an AR-15 (rifle), a large amount of ammunition 10 days prior to the shooting.” The prosecution also would have emphasized Gainforth's statements to police that he purchased the rifle because shooting was a hobby, Schneider said. Valerie R. Newman, Gainforth's appellate attorney, said Power fully considered the hypothetical trial and made the right decision. See related story:
|
|
