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July 22, 2008 No decision on murder charge for San Diego womanPosted: 12:33 PM ET
NEW YORK–There is no decision, yet, on whether a murder charge can be refiled against Cindy Sommer. The case against Sommer was dismissed last April, on the District Attorney’s motion, after new evidence raised doubt that Sommer was responsible for the arsenic poisoning death of her husband in 2002. In fact, the new evidence raised doubt that Todd Sommer was poisoned at all. Earlier this year (and more than a year after Sommer was convicted of murder), the District Attorney discovered additional tissues of the victim which had never been tested for arsenic. The tissues, preserved in paraffin, were sent to a private lab in Quebec, Canada. Surprising to many, though perhaps not to Sommer and her defense team, the results showed no arsenic present in any of the tissues. Sommer was promptly released from custody. She had been locked up since November 2005 and faced a new trial in May. The defense maintains that this new evidence proves Todd Sommer’s death was not even a homicide. Attorneys and Sommer were back in court last Friday as the defense seeks to have the case dismissed forever. The District Attorney wants the option to charge her again at some future date. Judge John Einhorn wants Sommer and her attorney, Allen Bloom, to decide how they want to proceed on their motion to dismiss with prejudice. If granted, Sommer would never face a murder charge again for the death of her husband. The defense wants the matter to go before the trial judge, Peter Deddeh, currently assigned to another courthouse. Judge Einhorn says he’ll send it to Judge Deddeh if the defense challenge only deals with the trial evidence. Judge Einhorn will keep the case if the defense challenge includes not just evidence at the 2007 trial, but also allegations of government misconduct during and after it; in particular, in retaining the victim’s tissues but not testing them until earlier this year. Bloom has indicated that his challenge will be limited to the evidence, in which case the matter will likely be sent to Judge Deddeh who, arguably, knows the case best. The next court date is September 26, 2008. –Beth Karas, In Session correspondent Filed under: Trials |
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