Defendant in Christian-Newsom Murders to Move for Acquittal

The grisly murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom have led to a series of trials that is still ongoing, with two of the defendants already being convicted and sentenced and a third currently on trial. Attorneys for George Thomas, the defendant currently on trial, plan to file a motion for acquittal under Rule 29 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure which basically asks that the court make a finding that the evidence presented against the defendant is insufficient to convict the defendant of one or more of the offenses with which he or she is charged.

This is a motion that is commonly used but infrequently granted because the discretion to weigh the evidence and make a determination as to guilt or innocence ordinarily rests with the jury. However, it is a valuable tool for Tennessee defense lawyers as an attorney could potentially get one or more charges dismissed against a defendant merely by filing a motion if the prosecution’s proof has shown to be inadequate.

Coverage of the trial of Mr. Thomas has indicated that his defense is focused in part on emphasizing the fact that the prosecution has no DNA or fingerprint evidence against Mr. Thomas that would place him at the scene of the crime when the murder occurred. Thus, it would not be at all surprising if these contentions also served, at least in part, as the basis of Mr. Thomas’s Rule 29 Motion for Acquittal.

After all, what better defense is there in a murder case than simply saying that the accused was not at the scene of the crime when the murder occurred and therefore could not have committed the murder or assisted in its commission? A Rule 29 Motion under such circumstances would probably attempt to convince the judge that the absence of such evidence placing the defendant at the scene of the crime would dictate that the defendant cannot be convicted of the charged offenses. Such motions are denied more often than not, but they are worth filing with the court in the off-chance they are granted.

Source: http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=106910&catid=2