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Alleged prosecutorial misconduct
BY JANET S. SPENCER
HOMETOWN NEWS
Ernest Riddle, who was convicted of murder and sent to death row twice but was successful at winning appeals and later receiving an overturned verdict in the 1985 murder of a Gaffney grandmother, could be released from prison in four years.
Riddle entered a plea of no contest in the case last week in Spartanburg County General Sessions Court just prior to yet another re-trial. His plea negotiated by the defense and prosecution meant this time he avoided the possibility of another death sentence, court officials said.
Determining Riddle’s plight in the latest development, Circuit Judge Mark Hayes accepted Riddle’s no contest plea and sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
With credit for the time he has already served, Riddle will be released from prison by 2015.
Riddle who was convicted when he was 19 years has been in prison since 1985 with the majority of the time spent on death row.
In last Friday’s proceedings, Riddle also pleaded no contest to first-degree burglary and armed robbery of the grandmother Abbie Sue Mullinax whose bludgeoned body was found inside her Concord Avenue residence in the city of Gaffney.
The crimes occurred in 1985.
For the rest of the story, read this week’s Blacksburg Times.
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