Retrial underway over Cleveland fire that killed 9
Source: AP
CLEVELAND (AP) — Attorneys for both sides laid out their cases Tuesday to open the federal retrial of a man charged in a Cleveland fire that killed a woman and eight children at a birthday sleepover.
Prosecutors contend Antun Lewis set the 2005 blaze that became Cleveland's deadliest house fire, but a defense attorney argued Lewis had no motive to do that.
Lewis, 29, won a new trial based on unreliable prosecution testimony from jailhouse informants. Some of those informants will be called again, and the defense plans to try to cast doubt on their testimony by offering other jailhouse informants as witnesses.
Timothy Ivey, an assistant federal public defender, told the new jury the government made its case using unreliable testimony from inmates seeking leniency.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/retrial-underway-over-cleveland-fire-killed-9
The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland has more info: Case of house fire that killed 9 people will be decided by testimony of jailhouse snitches, attorneys in retrial say