Conviction Reversed: Gilmer Woman To Face Second Trial For Murder of Her Mother

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A young Ellijay woman will stand trial for murder a second time, after the Georgia Supreme Court issued a rare conviction reversal.

The court’s unanimous opinion found a Gilmer County court abused its discretion by allowing “improper and prejudicial” character evidence of Courtney Boring’s “gothic” lifestyle, which suggested the young woman held satanic beliefs.

In sum, “one is left with the feeling that the [evidence in question] was employed simply because the jury would find these beliefs morally reprehensible.”
– Georgia Supreme Court

Boring was convicted of murdering her mother with a shotgun blast to the head and sentenced to life in prison plus five years back in 2007. Over the years, her attorneys continued to appeal the case and finally got the reversal they were looking for from Georgia’s High Court. Last week, Boring was transferred from a Georgia state prison back into the custody of the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Department to await her new trial date, which is yet to be set.

Boring was only 15 years old when sheriff’s deputies found her mother, Debra, shot dead just inside the front door of the family’s Ellijay home two days before Christmas in 2005. Rodney Boring, the victim’s husband, reported the crime. According to court documents, he said he had been at a catfish pond about a quarter mile from the home when his daughter called him in hysterics on a cell phone saying, “momma shot herself.” The husband told detectives he had been cleaning his .270 bolt-action rifle that morning in preparation of a hunting trip and had left it out with live ammunition on a nearby table. Fingerprints were lifted from the gun, but forensic experts later testified the prints were insufficient to make a positive identification.

Police also interviewed 20 to 30 of Boring’s friends and teachers who said they had never seen the teen exhibit violent behavior. However, they also discovered Boring and her parents had been fighting over the girl’s infatuation with a 19-year-old boy and the rift had deepened in the weeks before the murder.

Police continued to search the home and found pictures of the daughter with dyed black hair and dark make-up. They also confiscated a document bearing the words of a “curse” to be recited “while burning the letter over a black candle” and seven different inscriptions of song lyrics and quotations attributed to
various singers and other artists, bearing themes of anguish, enslavement, atheism, and violence. All of the items were entered as evidence at trial, despite the objections of defense attorneys.

The trial was held in 2007 and took about two weeks. Boring was convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus five years for possession of a fireman. She has always maintained she is innocent.

The Georgia Supreme Court noted there was enough evidence to conclude the teenager was guilty of the crimes, but took issue with prosecutors’ characterization of Boring’s so-called “gothic lifestyle.” In a 13-page opinion, the court explained its opinion, stating there was no evidence to link the murder (or violent behavior) to the photographs, inscriptions or “curse” document.

“In admitting this evidence, which bore no specific connection with the crime and operated merely to impugn appellant’s character by suggesting she held satanic beliefs, the trial court abused its discretion.”
– Georgia Supreme Court

Prosecutors filed an appeal last month asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider its reversal, citing the evidence in question was necessary to establish motive. That request was denied. It is unclear whether the evidence in question will be allowed in Boring’s second trial. It is also unclear how much a second trial will cost taxpayers.

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