COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man convicted of murder will get a new trial.
The Dispatch reports ( https://bit.ly/2dsa04f ) Circuit Judge Lee Coleman granted 39-year-old Derrick Bankhead a new trial Friday, citing evidence the District Attorney had a conflict of interest in prosecuting the case.
Bankhead was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the July 2011 armed robbery that resulted in his cousin being shot and killed.
Bankhead’s attorney moved for the new trial after evidence surfaced that District Attorney Scott Colom briefly represented Bankhead as a public defender during a preliminary hearing weeks after the shooting.
Colom was elected DA in 2015. He said he frequently stood in for defendants when he was a public defender. He agreed Bankhead should get a new trial but didn’t concede he’d done anything improper.
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Information from: The Commercial Dispatch, https://www.cdispatch.com
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