Man convicted of 1990 murder claims faulty defense, gets new trial

ATLANTA - A federal appeals court panel on Thursday said a man convicted of murder should get a new trial, ruling that his public defenders didn&#39;t present his case adequately. <br> <br> Cedric Daniel Eagle was convicted Dec. 4, 1991, in Laurens County for the 1990 murder of Tommy Ford. He was sentenced two weeks later to life in prison. <br> <br> A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Eagle&#39;s request for a new trial. The court ruled that Eagle&#39;s constitutional right to effective counsel on appeal was denied. <br> <br> Eagle appealed his conviction to the Georgia Supreme Court in 1993, but his new public defender did not include 10 of Eagle&#39;s claims about the quality of his defense. The court said those claims should have been raised. <br> <br> Eagle, who is black, said the state unfairly objected to black jurors for his original trial, leaving four blacks among the 12 jurors. He also said, among other claims, that his original attorney should have sought a plea bargain to a lesser charge and moved for a mistrial after several procedural errors.