A Spalding County mother imprisoned for more than a decade in a child abuse case deserves a new trial, a judge has ruled, finding the woman’s previous attorney had a conflict of interest because he also represented her husband after the couple’s arrests.
Tamara Nicole Weaver was granted a $100,000 bond Wednesday as she and her defense team prepare to argue her case before the Georgia Supreme Court in November.
The woman’s attorneys say she was failed at trial by her former lawyer, who was ethically constrained from introducing evidence suggesting Weaver’s husband had abused her and her 11-week-old son.
Weaver was convicted in 2014 of charges including cruelty to children, aggravated battery and aggravated assault. She was sentenced to 60 years, with 30 to serve, but a Habersham County judge vacated the conviction in April.
Weaver will be transferred from the prison to the county jail, where she will remain until she posts bond, her attorneys said after Wednesday’s hearing.
“Conflicts of interest often deny defendants their most basic right to effective counsel, as Ms. Weaver’s first defense attorney was ethically prevented from presenting evidence that could have proven her innocence while her abusive husband walked free,” said attorney Tyler Conklin, who represents Weaver.
Weaver brought her son to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite in March 2013, according to case filings. There, doctors discovered broken bones they believed were consistent with shaken baby syndrome.
Weaver and her then-husband, Michael Tyler, were arrested 10 days later and ultimately tried simultaneously. Tyler was acquitted at trial, while she was convicted and given a lengthy prison sentence, her attorneys said.
Weaver, now 36, has been held for more than a decade at Arrendale State Prison.
In his ruling vacating Weaver’s condition, Chief Judge William Oliver found her former attorney’s conflict of interest adversely affected his performance at trial.
“Trial counsel’s prior attorney-client relationship with the co-defendant prevented him from cross-examining the only remaining alternative suspect,” Oliver wrote, saying it left Weaver’s attorney “unable to pursue an alternative theory of guilt.”
The ruling is being appealed by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s Office.
Carr’s office also argued Weaver’s trial attorney did not have an actual conflict of interest because he stopped representing Tyler early on, several months before the case went to trial, and arranged for another attorney in his office to represent her co-defendant.
The AG’s office also suggested that it was Weaver’s decision not to insinuate that her husband was responsible for inflicting the boy’s injuries, which included 16 bone fractures throughout his ribs, pelvis and legs.
A stipulation introduced prior to the couple’s trial limited potential perpetrators of the child’s injuries to just three people: Weaver, her husband, and the child’s grandmother. Following stipulations from both defendants, the grandmother was eliminated from consideration ahead of the trial.
Ellie Williams, legal director of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said Weaver was “not only victim of abuse at home, but also of a flawed legal system that failed to recognize the signs.”
“The fact that she was abused affected her behavior in the courtroom, her interactions with police, the way she handled the whole circumstance,” said Williams, who also represents Weaver. “When we don’t take that into account adequately in the courtroom, we punish survivors.”
Oral arguments in the case are tentatively scheduled for Nov. 4.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
