The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday reversed the murder conviction against Steven Lamar Scott, saying a DeKalb County judge improperly excluded evidence in the case.
Scott was convicted of fatally shooting Dan Smith in 2008 after, Scott said, his niece told him Smith was molesting her. The high court said the trial judge should have allowed evidence of the alleged molestation to support a charge of voluntary manslaughter, which carries a lesser penalty than murder and is committed as a result of sudden, violent and irresistible passion.
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