Convict Ralph Blaine Smith wins freedom, evidence withheld at trial dispatch.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dispatch.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Evidence withheld by prosecutors leads to freedom, at least for now dispatch.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dispatch.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Two decades after Ralph Blaine Smith was sentenced to 67 years in prison for a Lancaster home-invasion, a Fairfield County judge has granted him a new trial, ruling that prosecutors withheld evidence that suggested the crime never occurred.
In a ruling filed Wednesday, Common Pleas Judge Richard E. Berens found that the withheld evidence was sufficiently material to establish a reasonable probability of a different result, and as such the nondisclosure has undermined the confidence in the verdict and violated Smith s right to due process.
The motion for a new trial, filed by Columbus defense attorney Joe Landusky, focused on evidence suggesting that the crime may have been staged.