ATLANTA — Since his sentencing in 2018, Tex McIver has been behind bars for the murder of his wife Diane McIver in 2016.
As they promised in the days after his conviction, Tex’s attorneys have been working on an appeal over the past few years - arguing that, for multiple reasons, the jury was conflicted and their client was denied a fair trial.
However in July of 2021, Judge Robert McBurney denied the defense’s request for a new trial, meaning Tex’s attorneys turned their attention to a higher court.
In October of that year, the defense team filed a request for a new trial in a 70-page brief to the Georgia Supreme Court.
In the brief, they pointed to a range of issues they believed resulted in an unfair trial for Tex. Among those: Judge Robert McBurney’s refusal to allow jurors to consider a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.
The defense team also argued that the prosecution achieved a guilty verdict through -- quote:
“the accumulation of speculative and foundationless evidence about the supposed financial motive and by portraying McIver as a greedy, heartless, and contemptible man who should not be permitted to profit from the death of his wife.”
They also brought up a slide that was shown to the jury during the prosecution’s closing arguments. It contained, along with a list of other words, the letters KKK. Tex’s lawyers wrote:
“the message, subliminal, yet unmistakable, was that McIver was a racist, a member of the KKK, and that his credibility (in his statement to the officer when he was questioned and in his out-of-court statements to others), should be judged accordingly.
Tex’s lawyers later summarized the 70-page brief, writing:
“If ever there was a case in which the cumulative impact of improper prejudicial evidence resulted in the denial of a fair trial, this case sets the standard.
Then in January of 2022, Tex, his legal team, and lawyers for the State appeared before justices of the Georgia Supreme Court.
Tex would wait almost six months to learn what the justices would decide.
In late June of this year, more than four years since Tex was convicted of murder in the death of his wife Diane, the state Supreme Court decision was announced.
The court unanimously overturned the murder conviction because the jury wasn't given the option by the judge to find McIver guilty of a lesser involuntary manslaughter offense.
Three weeks later, on July 22, news broke that the district attorney had made a decision to retry Tex again.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wrote that the Supreme Court found there was enough evidence at trial for a rational jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that McIver was guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted.
With the DA’s decision to re-try the case, Tex’s attorney Don Samuel said his team was ready to defend their client as needed, but remained hopeful that decision could change.
On Friday, Oct. 7, Tex was denied bond by Judge Robert C. I. McBurney, meaning he will remain behind bars pending trial.
McBurney expressed primarily a concern that Tex would be a flight risk ahead of his murder case needing to be re-tried following the reversal by the Georgia Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
After more than six years -- a seemingly endless series of surprising developments, a weeks-long trial, testimony from dozens of witnesses -- this story is not over.
New episodes of "Intent: The Tex McIver Case" drop every Monday starting August 22. Listen on your favorite podcast apps including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Stitcher.