Georgia judge throws out murder charges against two people in 2004 killing

A Georgia judge has thrown out murder charges against two people last week and barred state prosecutors from charging them again over a 2004 death that was the subject of a true crime show.

In 2015, Rebecca Haynie and her friend Donald Keith Phillips were arrested for the 2004 killing of her estranged husband Kirby Smith and charged with murder. The case of Smith’s death had been the subject of “Cold Justice,” a true crime show.

In the ruling obtained by WRBL, Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Gil McBride wrote that state prosecutors had “failed to show satisfactory cause why this case should not be dismissed with prejudice.”

“This order is the outcome that results naturally when forensic inquiry and the pursuit of truth are confused with entertainment,” he wrote.

John Martin, the attorney representing Phillips, said that the TV show was not the only problem in this case.

“The state had continually not been able to provide the discovery,” said Martin, according to WBRL. “And again, they were not ready and could not proceed to trial. And ultimately the judge said that’s enough. He said justice delayed is justice denied.”

In his ruling, McBride also singled out former district attorneys Julia Slater — who brought in “Cold Justice” to investigate — and Mark Jones. He added that current acting district attorney Sheneka Terry and her prosecutors “inherited a case badly compromised by the actions of their predecessors.”

“The often-quoted legal maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ has particular significance in the present case. It is doubtful Defendants would have ever been charged based on the record of this case in the absence of interest from a California entertainment studio ten years after the crime was committed,” wrote McBride.

“This entertainment studio, which profits from scandalous allegations and has no burden of proof in a court of law, has since refused to cooperate with the Court in this case.”

“Cold Justice” originally aired on TNT and is currently on Oxygen. One of the producers of the show is Dick Wolf, best known for being the creator of the “Law & Order” television franchise.