The sister of murder victim Emily Fisher has been informed that the next court date for Alfred Turner has been reset from December 15th to January 6th. Turner was convicted of facilitation of felony murder in 2007, but that conviction was overturned in 2010 and Turner was granted a new trial. However, defense attorneys are trying to negotiate a plea bargain. If Turner pleads guilty, he will walk free, having already served eight years of a 25-year sentence.
Katherine Klyce, who lives in Delaware and has been fighting 17 years for justice on behalf of her sister, says the attorney general's office told her that Turner needs more time to consider the offer. "His initial response," says Klyce, "is that he doesn't want to take the deal [which means he would move ahead with another trial] but he wants to talk to his family."
Turner's original verdit was overtuned because jurors in the 2007 trial were told that two men first accused of the homicide — Rodney Blades and George Tate — were acquitted in 1996. Defense attorneys claim that the prosecution could have prejudiced the jury by informing them of a previous acquittal. Klyce says the thought of Turner being released is "outrageous."
For an in-depth account of a nearly 17-year-old murder that shocked the city and continues to grieve a family, read the two-part series published in the October and November 2007 issues of Memphis:
A Murder in Central Gardens Part I (Memphis magazine, October 2007)
A Murder in Central Gardens Part II (Memphis magazine, November 2007)
