Tennessee Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Greg Lance’s Bid for New Trial After 25 Years Behind Bars

Summary

Petitioner counsel told justices that five alleged confessions and DNA evidence point to Sam and Peggy Horn as the killers, while the state countered the accounts are hearsay and pointed to trial evidence tying Greg Lance to the crime; the court questioned timing, credibility and the applicable jury instruction. No decision was issued.

The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Greg Lance, who has spent more than a quarter of a century in prison and is seeking post-conviction relief through a coram nobis petition.

Margaret Dodson, counsel for Lance, told the court she represented "the petitioner-appellant, Greg Lance," and argued the lower coram nobis court erred in denying relief in the face of what she described as "overwhelming evidence of actual innocence." Dodson said the petition filed in 2024 included sworn affidavits from three new witnesses and two prior witnesses — five people in total — who "said Sam and Peggy Horn did it," and that one of the new witnesses reported that Sam Horn had used his nephew to dispose of the murder weapon near where it was later found. She told the court there was "DNA evidence that another man's DNA, not Greg Lance's, was on the murder weapon." Dodson said a local pastor found a shirt at the victims' home in…

Tennessee Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Greg Lance’s Bid for New Trial After 25 Years Behind Bars

Summary

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