ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Attorney Janice Mann believes her clint did not received a fair trial when he was tried and convicted of murder in 2016.
“He wasn’t given his fair trial,” Mann said.
Gines was found guilty and sentenced to life in 2016 with two other defendants, in the shooting death of Kadarius Medlock in an Alpharetta home.
Mann told Channel 2′s Ashli Lincoln recently this case has gained new attention from the courts after prosecutors under former District Attorney Paul Howard, were accused of destroying evidence, during a 2023 hearing.
Jamel Gines, Michael Dawson and Dontravious Mahone represented themselves in the hearing to discuss the evidence. All three still maintain their innocence.
As they worked toward filing an appeal, the group said they discovered the prosecutor who worked the trial, Cara Convery, removed the exhibits.
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Channel 2 reached out to Convery after the December hearing, who said she has no comment. The prosecutor has been accused of mishandling evidence and falsifying documents, according to a release by Free the Innocent Atlanta.
Mann filed her motion in September, during a motion for new trial hearing.
“The importance of the evidence is that this witness could have, given the jury information that could have doubted that he was at the scene of the murder,” mans said.
During the motion for a new trial Mann presented a witness who did not testify in the first trial. She told the court she saw Gines in a black car at a gas station and not in the suspect’s vehicle after the murder.
“This witness could have, given the jury information that could have doubted that he was at the scene of the murder,” Gines said.
Mans told Lincoln she is arguing jurors could have formed bias towards Gines because he was forced to remain shackled during his trial.
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“It’s inherently prejudicial for any person to be held in restraints during a jury trial,” she said.
In its response to Mann allegations the state says, it did not intentionally destroy any exhibits or documents.
The 12-page response also lists a number of claims from Gine’s two codefendants that the state says it is no evidence backing their claims.
“Every person has the right to a fair trial free of prejudice,” Mann said.
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The judge has not made a ruling yet on granting a new trial or the evidence issues. Channel 2 Action News reached out to the sheriff’s office about its inmate shackle policy.
In a statement it said:
It is our current policy that inmates are not handcuffed during jury trials. Although not in policy, it is our practice that they are not in visible leg restraints during jury trials either. The exception would be if they became irate or violent, then the judge would order them to be restrained. They are handcuffed when brought into the courtroom for anything else.
The Sheriff’s told Lincoln it cannot speak to what happened in 2016.
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