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May 9, 2006

Update: Judge denies Hazard's motion for new trial

PROVIDENCE -- Superior Court Judge Edwin J. Gale today denied Derick Hazard's motion for a new trial, leaving the convicted murderer little recourse but to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Hazard sought a new trial after evidence surfaced that a car rented by his girlfriend was stopped by New Jersey police hours before David S. Andrews was gunned down in South Providence on July 18, 1996. Hazard argued that he was in the car, and that his lawyer, Vincent J. Oddo failed to do his job by not presenting that evidence in the trial.

"This court finds that [Hazard] has failed to show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for Oddo's unprofessional errors, the result at trial would have been different," Gale wrote, noting that Oddo met with family countless times, was active in cross examination, and mounted an alibi defense.

"Such efforts are not at all indicative of 'representation so lacking that the [trial became] a farce and mockery of justice,'" as is required to grant the petition for a new trial.

Hazard has been serving a life sentence for Andrews' murder since 1998. He previously lost an appeal for his conviction. But the motion that Gale is considering is the first to center on the competence and effectiveness of Oddo's representation.

Read Gale's ruling (23-page pdf).

Posted by Steve Peoples  at 5:41 PM | Permalink

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