Georgia's highest court says three U.S. servicemen who have been in prison for 25 years for a racially-motivated murder are entitled to a new trial.
A unanimous Georgia Supreme Court opinion published Thursday says state prosecutors improperly withheld evidence that would have helped the men's defense.
Stanley Jackson, a black man, was fatally shot Jan. 31, 1992, in a high-crime part of Savannah. Three white servicemen stationed at nearby Fort Stewart — Mark Jason Jones, Kenneth Eric Gardiner and Dominic Brian Lucci — were arrested less than an hour later and charged with murder.
The opinion says a police report describing a similar racially-motivated incident that occurred the same night after the three were in custody could have helped them. But their lawyers never received it.
