State Supreme Court hears arguments in Hinton appeal

<p>If a person is clever enough to kill someone and no one can determine where the crime was committed, should he get away with murder?</p><p>That is one of several issues Georgia's Supreme Court justices are pondering after the attorney for Colvin "Butch" Hinton on Monday argued Hinton's appeal of his conviction. A DeKalb County jury in September found Hinton guilty of killing Emory University student Shannon Melendi after she disappeared in March 1994. He was sentenced to life in prison.</p><p>The murder conviction is the first in Georgia where authorities could find neither a body nor a definitive crime scene _ which makes the state requirement of establishing venue a challenge, said Hinton's attorney B.J. Bernstein.</p><p>"There's no way of locating where or how this occurred," Bernstein told the justices. "We don't know what happened to Shannon Melendi."</p><p>The unique circumstances of the case also make it difficult to compare it to Hinton's previous crimes.</p><p>Hinton had been accused three times previously of abducting women in Illinois and Kentucky. He served 15 months in prison for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from Neponset, Ill., in 1982. As a 17-year-old, he was sent to counseling after attacking a woman.</p><p>He had been considered a suspect since shortly after Melendi's disappearance, but was not charged until 2004. Prosecutors said Hinton abducted Melendi, then a 19-year-old sophomore, after a softball game at the athletic complex where they both worked.</p><p>Her body has never been found.</p><p>All the state was able to prove, Bernstein said, is that Hinton "did something bad, in general, with a woman."</p><p>"There's nothing to compare," she said.</p><p>Bernstein also argued that she was not able to obtain enough information about Melendi's lifestyle _ information she said could have provided more clues about her mysterious disappearance. She said the jury should have been told of FBI speculation that the Emory sophomore might have been killed by a drug dealer or a boyfriend.</p><p>DeKalb County assistant district attorney Leonora Grant said the "no body, no crime scene" argument is not a basis for an appeal, since the two can be resolved independently.</p><p>"There has never been any proof that Shannon Melendi was alive in Clayton County," Grant said, referring to the argument that Melendi might have been killed there instead of in DeKalb.</p><p>Grant also reminded the justices that while the case is unique to Georgia, other states have dealt with this issue. Grant quickly dismissed the argument that Melendi's lifestyle _ specifically the question of whether or not she may have been using drugs _ was relevant to the case.</p><p>"Evidence of a victim's character is inadmissible unless it can be proved relevant," Grant said, "There was no evidence that showed any connection."</p><p>Georgia Supreme Court spokesman Rick Diguette said that the court has until July 31, the end of its second term, to rule on the case. On average, decisions are handed down within two to five months of oral arguments, he said.</p>