A military couple from Georgia was denied a retrial earlier this week after being sentenced to life in prison for the 2008 murder of their newborn daughter.
Three days after Ashley and Albert Debelbot brought their daughter home from Martin Army Community Hospital in Fort Benning, the couple was saying their goodbyes. As a medical examiner concluded, the infant died from trauma caused by a blow or multiple blows to the head.
After the pair spent nearly 12 years in prison, with several failed attempts to appeal the conviction, District Attorney Mark Jones finally filed a motion to drop all their charges.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), “the state’s highest court determined the couple had ineffective legal counsel at their initial trial and unanimously agreed to reverse their convictions.”
The court argues that there simply was not enough evidence for the jury to make an honest conviction.
“… Reasonable doubt does not mean beyond all doubt. It does not mean to a mathematical certainty,” a prosecutor told the jury while explaining the burden of proof required to return a guilty verdict. “You don’t have to be 90% sure. You don’t have to be 80% sure. You don’t have to be 51% sure.”
“There is no good reason that any reasonably competent lawyer would fail to object to such an egregious misstatement of the law,” former Justice Keith Blackwell wrote.
Although dismissing the case was a difficult decision for Jones, the DA “said ‘mounting medical evidence’ caused him to believe reasonable doubt about the couple’s guilt exists.”
Ultimately, retrying the case is just not worth it. “I don’t see how we have time to invest in it. Twenty-four years, that’s a long time,” Jones said, recalling the combined number of years the couple has spent behind bars.
Albert and Ashley Debelbot, now 35 and 36 respectively, were released last July on bond. They are awaiting a final decision in the case.
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