Associated Press
A man convicted of the 2007 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Jackson State University student Latasha Norman, has been awarded a new trial.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals said a Hinds County judge erred in failing to tell jurors in Stanley Cole’s trial that they could consider a manslaughter conviction as an alternative to a murder conviction.
The jury convicted Cole of murder in February 2010. Cole has acknowledged killing the 20-year-old woman, but maintains it was an accident. Cole said the two were fighting in a car when Norman hit her head and he couldn’t resuscitate her.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
The Appeals Court, a 7-3 decisions, said defendants are entitled to jury instructions that present their side of the case.
“Had the jurors believed Cole’s statement, they could not have applied those facts to the law because the trial judge provided them no instruction on the law of manslaughter,” wrote Appeals Judge Eugene Fair Jr.
Appeals Judge Tyree Irving, in a dissent joined by two other judges, said a manslaughter instruction would imply that Cole’s actions occurred during the heat of the moment.
“There was no evidence here that Cole was in a state of violent or uncontrollable rage. Therefore, his confession alone is insufficient to justify a … manslaughter instruction,” Irving said.
The case drew widespread attention for two weeks in November 2007 while police searched for the missing student.
Norman went missing after a class on Nov. 13, 2007. Her body was found Nov. 29, 2007, in a wooded area of north Jackson near Tougaloo College.
About a month before her disappearance, Norman filed an assault charge and accused Cole of hitting her in the face in the parking lot of a Pearl restaurant.
Former classmates and current students were outraged by the announcement.
Jerry Zigler, former editor of the Jacksonian Yearbook and Flash staff member, was upset to hear that Cole would be getting a new trail.
“I think that it is ridiculous and heartless that after everything his actions put the family and friends through that he would move forward with an appeal. Not only did he admit his guilt, but the details following her death before he left her body in the woods signifies that this is no accident. In my eyes, a life sentence was a break for him,” said Zigler.
Other JSU students also expressed their concern over Cole’s new trial.
Kadeja Gary, a senior early childhood education major from Florence, Miss. said, ‘’I don’t think he should go for another trial because he is already in prison for life, so what is the point of him getting another chance.”
Stafford Mace, a graduate student from Vicksburg, Miss., thinks that Cole deserves a fair trial by law. “If he is qualified for a trial, then he deserves a trial. If it is by law; but do I think that it is right? No, because I personally believe that it wasn’t accidental,” said Mace, “He did act in rage and that is why he killed her. He knew the crime, so he deserves punishment.”
Mark Braboy contributed to this story.
