Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals orders new trial of Huntsville cop William Darby’s murder verdict

By Caleb Taylor, 1819News.com

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed and ordered a new trial in a case resulting in a guilty verdict of murder by a former Huntsville cop in Madison Circuit Court in 2021.

William Darby, a former officer with the Huntsville Police Department (HPD), was sentenced by a jury to 25 years in prison in 2021 for the alleged murder of Jeffrey Parker in 2018.

According to the court’s opinion, on appeal, Darby “argues that the trial court erred by refusing to give three of his requested jury instructions; he also argues that the trial court violated his right to a public trial and that the jury’s verdict was against the great weight of the evidence.”

“We conclude that the trial court’s refusal to give one of the requested instructions was reversible error, and we remand the case for a new trial on that basis,” the court wrote in its opinion.

Members of the court concluded that “because the testimony regarding a police officer’s training supported a finding that Darby acted in self-defense or defense of another, the omission of a jury instruction regarding the proper perspective from which to evaluate such evidence raises legitimate questions as to whether the jury’s verdict was affected by its omission.”

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