Pretrial Motions Wrap Up in Butler Death Penalty Trial

Cory Butler was in court Thursday for final motions in his death penalty trial which is now set to begin March 13, 2013. Butler is one of the three Monroe men accused in the 2009 murder of 65-year-old Epsie Ewing of Loganville.

Butler, John Jody Blackwell, Jr. and Barry Partee are facing the death penalty following the May 21, 2009 attack that resulted in the death of Ewing the following month. Butler is the first of the three to go on trial.

In final motions Thursday, Butler's attorney, Christian Lamar, challenged the make up of the traverse and grand jury, with a witness testifying that there are problems with the new jury selection procedure. The new procedure was implemented in July. Jeffrey Martin, a statistician and expert witness, said there are some 4,000 duplicates in the jury list, those duplicates being heavily weighted in the white population. He said that increased the likelihood of white jurors being called. Conversely, Martin said, those people on the list who were unlikely to be located due to errors in addresses, etc., were heavily weighted in the black community. Martin said the result would be that the make up of the jury would not be an accurate reflection of the make up of Walton County, thereby denying Butler his constitutional rights.

Superior Court Judge Eugene Benton, however, denied the motion. Benton said in a population of some 78,000 as was on the list in Walton County, the 4,000 duplicates, even though the larger proportion were from the white population, was not significant enough to violate Butler's 6th Amendment Right.

Benton did rule that the prosecution turn over to the defense an internal investigation on Mike Westbrooks, the lead investigator in the case. Westbrooks is no longer with the LPD.

The defense has also indicated that Butler's mental capabilities and IQ level will possibly play a part in his defense.

Walton County District Attorney Layla Zon said the trial would start with jury selection on March 13 and would then roll straight into the trial once the jury was seated. Ewing's has been frustrated with the delay in taking the case to trial. However, with three people on trial and it being a death penalty case, it has been difficult to get all the defendant's attorneys scheduled for pretrial hearings. Zon said once Butler's case was over, however, the other two would likely move through the system faster.