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| Man wrongly held for two-years at CCA prison in Tennessee |
| By The Tennessean |
| Published: 09/22/2003 |
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A mix-up in a plea agreement, a string of oversights and poor representation by his defense lawyer has kept a homeless man wrongly in a Tennessee prison for the past two years, an appeals court said yesterday. Last week the state Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the sentence of Elbert M. Marable Jr., who pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault stemming from the robbery of a Murfreesboro liquor store in May 2000. He has served two years and four months of a three-year sentence, according to a state Web site. ''We cannot conclude that'' Marable's guilty plea ''was entered voluntarily and intelligently,'' Judge David G. Hayes wrote in the opinion. The judge called the plea ''constitutionally infirm'' and sent the case back to Rutherford County Circuit Court. Marable pleaded guilty to pulling a knife on David Harvley, who is identified in the ruling as being ''semi-transient,'' outside the McGregor Liquor Store on May 13, 2000. But Marable, who had gotten into a fight with another customer at the store and walked out with a bottle of Seagrams Seven whiskey, said he thought he was pleading guilty to pulling a knife on the store clerk, Frederick Steele. Complicating matters, Marable's lawyer, Gregory M. Reed, ''acknowledged'' that he only saw Marable in court and never visited him during the seven months that he was in jail before the trial, Hayes wrote. The lawyer did not review Marable's case in court to ensure that Marable fully understood what he was pleading guilty to, the opinion said. An Elbert M. Marable Jr., who turned 31 years old Saturday, is incarcerated in Whiteville Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Hardeman County, the state's online felony offender lookup said. His sentence started on April 30, 2001, the site said. It also said Marable had been denied parole in July 2002. |
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