The Georgia Supreme Court reversed a murder conviction Monday because the judge required the defendant to be shackled during the trial.

“It is well established that ‘no person should be tried while shackled . . . except as a last resort,’” Chief Justice Harold Melton wrote for a unanimous court. “The law has long forbidden routine use of visible shackles during the guilt phase; it permits a State to shackle a criminal defendant only in the presence of a special need.” Melton cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion from Illinois v. Allen in 1970.

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