Post by CCADP on Aug 13, 2005 20:59:17 GMT -5
Mom Accused Of Torching Home, Killing Kids May Get Polygraph
POSTED: 7:45 pm CDT August 13, 2005
UPDATED: 7:52 pm CDT August 13, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana Supreme Court will decide whether a woman accused of setting fire to her house and leaving her children inside to die can use a polygraph test as evidence that she should be let out of jail while she waits to be tried.
Amanda Gutweiler Hypes is charged with first-degree murder for all three deaths.
Her house burned down in January 2001; Hypes has been in the Rapides Parish Jail since her arrest in May 2002. Her trial is scheduled for February, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Attorney J. Michael Small has been trying to have bail set so Hypes might get out of jail.
He wants to have a polygraph expert testify that Hypes passed a lie detector test.
State District Judge Harry Randow ruled in June that the expert could not testify, but the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the decision last month and the state Supreme Court has now decided to hear the case.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press.
POSTED: 7:45 pm CDT August 13, 2005
UPDATED: 7:52 pm CDT August 13, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The Louisiana Supreme Court will decide whether a woman accused of setting fire to her house and leaving her children inside to die can use a polygraph test as evidence that she should be let out of jail while she waits to be tried.
Amanda Gutweiler Hypes is charged with first-degree murder for all three deaths.
Her house burned down in January 2001; Hypes has been in the Rapides Parish Jail since her arrest in May 2002. Her trial is scheduled for February, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Attorney J. Michael Small has been trying to have bail set so Hypes might get out of jail.
He wants to have a polygraph expert testify that Hypes passed a lie detector test.
State District Judge Harry Randow ruled in June that the expert could not testify, but the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the decision last month and the state Supreme Court has now decided to hear the case.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press.