Michael George, the comic book retailer and convention organizer, got a reprieve on Friday when Macomb County judge James Biernat set aside his murder conviction.
“I’m convinced it will be a miscarriage of justice to allow the verdict to stand,†Biernat said from the bench at the start of a 45-minute statement, adding that each of his reasons on its own “is enough for a new trial.â€
The ruling drew elation from George and his supporters, and disdain and anger from Barbara George’s family and other supporters.
The new trial is set to begin on December 2, 2008.
If you haven’t seen the Comic Book Murder on MSNBC, look for it to appear again, and you’ll see exactly what the prosecution based its evidence on. I don’t know if George did it or not, but after watching the documentary, I was less than convinced the prosecution had an open and shut case.
This whole things gets weirder by the moment…You can read the Macomb Daily story here.
9 Comments
For the next 30 years lawyers will be quoting People vs George 2008 whenever there is prosecutorial misconduct.The judge listed over 10 instances and quoted case law to back up his verdict.He also asked the prosecutor and Clinton Township police if they ever checked Michael George’s alibi in 1990 or 2007 which they had to answer “no” .Then he asked them if they ever investigated the two separate known murders who were turned into the tipline in 1990 or 2007,again they had to answer “no”.The Attorney General of Michigan has been asked to investigate the Clinton Township Police and the prosecutors office.Support the Innocence Project.There are more innocent people in jail than the public realizes.
The only problem is (if my memory serves correctly) the Attorney General for Michigan is the son of the sheriff who investigated the murder originally, but who passed away with that being the only unsolved case on his books – so there is some bias there as well.
@Stephen
That’s what I took away from the special on MSNBC, that the AG did this for his pops. Not that I don’t admire that in way, but yeah there were some inconsistencies on behalf of the proscecution. My LCS owner knows the guy personally and has done business with him for sometime, so we’ve talked at length about the case and the intricacies involved.
i will be frank about this… I am not conviced either if the defendant is or not guilty. I do agree with what the judge is saying and i feel bad for the judge that he’s getting lashed out. He’s just trying to be fair! Give him a break!
I am OUTRAGED that the judge in this case has overturned the jury’s guilty verdict! This guy has enjoyed 19
years of the “good life”, (WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING BACK),..on the money from his wife’s insurance policy!!
Are you KIDDING ME??? It’s time he started paying for the life (and future) that he STOLE from this poor woman!
And just for the record,..you could TELL that the judge was (shall we say) “leaning” towards Mr. George ALL THRU
THE TRIAL! He couldn’t hide it, it was written all over his face. I believe he was biased and that he was INTENT
on doing this IF the verdict came back ‘guilty’. Judges like him are the reason that we so often see the “justice
system” as a pathetic laughing stock! And I’m NOT laughing. If Michael George beats this rap in a new trial, he
will have GOTTEN AWAY WITH MURDER, and go on with his happy life!!
Ya know. It might sound crass, but I really don’t care whether the verdict was guilty or innocent. What I care about is that people get a fair trial and that justice is served. If the man is guilty, he should pay for it. If he’s innocent, he should be entitled to having his life back. In this case, -clearly- the prosecuting parties made errors. Additionally, some of the “hard evidence” presented really had to make me laugh. Are we really supposed to believe that someone remember the exact time they made a call how many years ago? These are why cold cases don’t get solved easily. You usually have to find new (and real) evidence to prove the point. It isn’t a matter of opening the books back up, drawing a name from the box and making that your bunny. Unfortunately, it seems like everyone and their brother is out for blood, though. They don’t care about evidence. They don’t care about process. They simply care about getting an eye for an eye. They care about finding -someone- that they can stone. It’s sad and frankly, it disgusts me. So many people spout about who intended what and how “obvious” all of this is. If the case was obvious, wouldn’t it have been solved 15 or 20 years ago, whenever it all took place? What new evidence was presented this time around to make anything different? Maybe Michael George is innocent, maybe he’s guilty. Regardless, he’s entitled to due process and he’s entitled to an unbiased trial.
The cops blew this case intitially — not checking the phone calls into that store, from the guy who said he talked to George by phone within 45 minutes of the murder.
If the cops had simply checked the phone records — they easily find when the coach called the store.
Yes — George apparently killed his wife, for the oldest reason on earth. He wanted better sex. If you think that doesn’t matter, you are nuts. Not every man kills for it, of course, but men do everything for power, prestige, and passion. Scott Peterson for example, killed for exactly that. And he seemed like the greatest guy on earth.
But like it or not, the cops blew it. You would think phone records would be checked ROUTINELY in a murder case — just one of the things the cops would collect, just like taking pictures of the scene, collecting fingerprints — get phone records.
One phone call — you get the records. Its easy. That goes in the file. Very basic, even without and suspicions that a phone call MIGHT be involved – get the frigging phone records anyway.
As far as I know, George is still in jail. Lets hope he is getting the kind of sex he so desperately wanted.
One more point — there is some talk on comic blogs that George’s new wife MUST know about.
No — she doesnt have to know at all. George’s schtick — his way to get women — was to con them. He acted like a very religious guy, gregarious, outgoing, life of the party. So I doubt if he is guilty, if his wife knew. She is lucky she didnt get fat and have a big insurance policy, however.
There is a difference between someone who is innocent of the crime and someone who is found not guilty. If you know the details of this case there must be a doubt as to whether Mr. George committed the crime. While it’s reasonable to believe that he may have committed the offense, I don’t know how anyone in good conscience say they are convinced of his guilt.
The fact that the police were so deficient in their investigation cannot be used as proof of the defendant’s guilt. I’m glad the judge saw the case for what it was and I’m sure he was expecting the jury to find Mr. George NOT Guilty.