Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has come to the defense of a judge reversed by the Georgia Court of Appeals over comments the judge made to a defendant about a plea negotiation.
Howard’s office filed a motion Thursday asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision to reverse a burglary conviction. The appeals court held that Judge D. Todd Markle of Fulton Superior Court wrongly pushed the defendant, who was representing himself, to plead guilty. The appeals court said the judge threatened Marion Hayes with serving 20 years in prison if Hayes took his case to trial and lost. The judge told Hayes he could plead guilty and accept the state’s recommended sentence of serving seven years in prison and 13 on probation. But because Hayes was a recidivist with three prior offenses, he would face the maximum sentence of 20 years to serve, if he did not accept the plea and was found guilty, Markle told him.
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