A former Barrow County magistrate judge, convicted almost a year ago in the murder of his nephew, is entitled to a new trial, according to a ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court.
In the written opinion issued Tuesday morning, the justices on the high court agreed with the trial judge's order granting a new trial to Paul Lamar Hamilton.
Hamilton was convicted in October 2018 in the 2015 murder of his nephew Brandon Lay. He was sentenced to a term of life in prison, but immediately following the sentencing phase of the trial, Chief Judge David Motes made a motion for a new trial and then granted his own motion. Motes told the court at the time, he had erred in the instructions he gave to the jury.
The State appealed the ruling for the new trial to the Georgia Supreme Court; on Tuesday, the justices unanimously denied the appeal.
In the ruling, the high court quoted two statutes, Georgia Code § 5-5-20 which states “In any case when the verdict of a jury is found contrary to evidence and the principles of justice and equity, the judge presiding may grant a new trial before another jury" and Georgia Code §5-5-21 which states that a judge may grant a new trial in “cases where the verdict may be decidedly and strongly against the weight of the evidence even though there may appear to be some slight evidence in favor of the finding.” These grounds for a new trial – commonly called the “general grounds” – allow the trial judge to exercise a “broad discretion to sit as a ‘thirteenth juror.’”
There is no word on a time frame for Hamilton's new trial.
To read more about the ruling and the evidence presented in the murder trial, follow this link.
