By Mark Bixler
Staff Writer Atlanta Journal
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
June 24, 1999

A judge in Cherokee County has taken the unusual step of dismissing a murder solicitation charge against a woman on trial for seeking to have her millionaire husband killed. Defense attorneys routinely ask judges for not-guilty verdicts from the bench, called directed verdicts, but judges usually let juries decide guilt or innocence and rarely use their power to dismiss charges during a trial.

by John Edwards
Cherokee Tribune Staff Writer
Cherokee Tribune
June 24, 1999

A ruling by a Cherokee Superior Court judge cleared an Acworth widow of plotting to kill her rich husband last summer. “My client has been all over the newspaper for the past year for a crime for which there was no probable cause,” Woodstock defense attorney Gregory Hicks said.