CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WTVR)–Convicted murderer and former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V has won the right to an appeal.
In 2012 he was found guilty of murdering ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love. But the court is granting an appeal after his attorneys argued a juror was not impartial and should have been dismissed.
And they added Hugely was denied the right to counsel when one of his lawyers became sick during his trial in 2012.
Huguely is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.
CBS 6 Legal Analyst, Todd Stone says both Huguely and prosecutors will now present their case to the court. A judge will decide if those errors affected the outcome of the trial and also determine if a new trial is needed.
Stone tells CBS 6’s Lorenzo Hall, the absence of one of Huguely’s attorneys is an issue that would typically result in a new trial.
That new trial would be burdensome for prosecutors says Stone, because they’d likely lose some of the key elements that may have been helpful when convincing the jury the first time around. ”You have to put on all the evidence again and sometimes, witnesses are no longer there, so they can't find witnesses. That's what happens because the appeals process takes a while,” says Stone.
