Prosecutor Says Note About ‘Light Male’ Shooter Wasn’t a Dying Declaration
A Tennessee prosecutor doesn’t want jurors to see a cab driver’s note before his death that identified his shooter as a “light male.”
Knoxville County prosecutor Jason Hunnicutt argues the note shouldn’t be admissible as a dying declaration because cabbie John Cooper was on the upswing when he wrote the note after hospital surgery, the Knoxville News reports. Cooper died about two weeks later.
The accused murderer is Domina Benton. His lawyer, Tom Slaughter, says his client is, in the words of the newspaper, “decidedly dark-skinned.” Hunnicutt argues that “light is a subjective term” and Cooper isn’t here to clarify.
The judge has delayed Benton’s trial to give Slaughter time to interview witnesses who may have talked to Cooper and learned whether he thought he was dying, the story says.
