Deadly Fortune | 7. Extended Family
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What led to the legal battle over Diane McIver's fortune?
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I would meet Billy at the Downwinds restaurant there at P Street DeKalb Airport. And if you didn't know it was Billy Corey, you thought it was a poor homeless man sitting at the table hoping somebody would buy him a cheeseburger. But once you got to know him and to know Diane as well, you could see they were very talented at making money. Billy would make money with Democrats, Republicans, Independents. It didn't matter.
This is J. Tom Morgan, who knew most of the circle of players in this story and who has his own strong opinions on how this all played out.
I met Billy Corey when I worked for a law firm in Atlanta, and he was one of our clients. And that's how I got to know Diane as well. I'm a professor here at Western Carolina University, where I teach criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal ethics to students.
Jay Tom was there for the trial, watching each move by both sides like a hawk.
And I sat through a good bit of the trial, just as a curious observer, not for any particular person. The whole story, both sides, didn't make sense, the prosecution theory and the defense theory. again having known diane and i didn't know tets but i knew a lot of people who knew tets their relationship you know seemed okay though when they bought their piece of property that you know in middle georgia that tets like to call a ranch most of us from georgia will call it a farm But Diane made sure that Tetz gave her a promissory note for his part. That's not your typical marriage arrangement. I think it goes back to that Diane was the one who had the business sense. They did not have any children. Tetz had children from a previous marriage. So I think Diane wanted to be careful with her assets, to be honest. I think Diane would take business over a marriage any day.
If you were in Atlanta during the trial, you saw the reports each and every night on the local news. The fact that Tex, a prominent lawyer, had done this at all was shocking. But how it all played out in court was different than anything most of us had seen before, including J. Tom.
It is bizarre both from the legal criminal and the civil as well. So I was not terribly surprised to see that Tex MacGyver was found guilty of murder and felony murder, certainly felony murder. Eventually, the judge gets reversed, not on the sufficiency of the evidence, but for the jury charge. Supreme Court said he should have given a lesser included charge. Well, the jury is found guilty of the most serious charge and felony murder, two very serious charges. In J. Tom's opinion, it didn't have to turn out this way. Well, I think this is really sloppiness on both the prosecutor and the judge in this case. as I tell prosecutors and I tell my students, is that if the defense asks for a lesser charge, give it to them.
Let the jury hear everything, because if they're going to be found guilty of a lesser charge, they're guilty of a lesser charge. In this case, I am 100% believe that had the judge given the lesser charge, he still would have been found guilty of murder and felony murder. It would have not made a difference. But it was a mistake that didn't need to be made.
The Supreme Court decision to overturn Texas' original murder conviction does not sit well with J. Tom.
I think the Supreme Court was second-guessing the jury here. And the Supreme Court did not see the case as much as I did. I think this was a good question for a jury. That's why we have juries. Jurors decide issues of fact and law. And these 12 people hearing all the facts decided that he was guilty of murder. Is it something the Supreme Court shouldn't have reversed? I don't think in this case, I think the lesser charge failure to give it should have been a harmless error instead of a reversal.
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