Here you go Luddite:
The alleged victim in this case, Kenneth Herring, blew through a red light and slammed into a semi-trailer, hard enough to make it tilt. An off-duty officer who approached him noticed that he seemed impaired.
/1
Hannah Payne witnessed the accident. And she waited around for 20 minutes, just in case the officer needed her to be a witness. But eventually, Herring's behavior grew more erratic.
He started mumbling to himself. Pacing. The officer told him not to go back into his car. /2
But Herring ignored the officer. Instead he got back into his car, which was visibly disabled, leaking oil and hissing, and "floored it" into traffic.
The officer asked Hannah Payne to get his tag number. She jumped into her Jeep and followed Herring. /3
The traffic was pretty heavy. But Hannah was on the phone with 911 the entire time. The operator told her to be "safe." "Don't chase." She knew how dangerous someone fleeing from an accident could be. Hannah didn't.
/4
When Herring got into a right turn, Payne pulled over in front of him. She told 911 that she was stopping in front of him so he could not cause another accident and hurt someone. /5
When Hannah approached Herring, she showed him that she was on the phone with 911. She told him that he needed to get out of his car and wait for police, or return back to the scene of the accident. But she made a mistake. /6
Hannah got too close to Herring, because she didn't realize that he was a dangerous man. His car was full of needles and baggies, and he had a knife in the back seat.
The State claimed these all contained insulin, but failed to test them. /7
Herring grabbed Hannah by the neck. He said "I got something for you, *****." He slapped the phone out of her hand, where it fell to the pavement. At some point, while he was grabbing her, he accelerated into her Jeep. /8
At first, Hannah was screaming "stop, stop, stop." But eventually, she pulled her firearm from its holster. She said she would shoot him. /9
Herring started grabbing for the weapon. The physical evidence shows in the struggle, he gave Hannah a black eye, scratched her neck, and tore her shirt. There was no evidence that he ever tried to push her away from the car. He only wanted to drag her in. /10
Eventually, the gun went off, either because Hannah fired it or Herring had twisted it from her grasp. The video shows that the second this happened, Payne stumbled backwards. She was free. /11
But at trial, Hannah's attorney was not aware that he could request instructions on citizen's arrest or defense of others.
And that was fatal, because if Hannah Payne was committing a felony when she approached Herring, she could not be justified.
/12
As the State explained to the jury, even if Herring was deliberately trying to kill Hannah to escape justice, if she had "no right" to stop him, that was permissible.
The jury didn't know one central point of law. /13
Under the citizen's arrest and defense of others statutes, you can use reasonable force to stop an impaired motorist from driving recklessly.
That would authorize the "false imprisonment" that began the encounter. /14
But in the absence of those instructions, the jury lacked the necessary tools to acquit. Hannah could not get a fair trial even if everyone on that jury believed her account. /15
So the alleged misconduct in this case is relevant to show how Clayton County conducts itself in trials and appeals. It's relevant to show the care that went into denying Hannah's motion for new trial.
But it's secondary. /16
the real issue is that Hannah Payne wanted to protect her community from a dangerous person. She acted in good faith. And when she defended herself from an unrprovoked attack, her trial counsel's mistake denied her due process. /17
It's for this reason that we fervently hope Hannah will get a new trial. She does not deserve to spend the rest of her life in prison. /18
I'm Gipper
