GA GA - Dr. James 'Jim' Burns, 50, Columbus, 19 Oct 1992

After 22 years under suspicion of fatally stabbing then-school Superintendent Jim Burns, Kareem Lane was found not guilty of murder on Saturday afternoon.

It took a day and a half of deliberation — nearly 13 hours — before the Muscogee County Superior Court jury returned with the verdict.

In an emotional and tense courtroom, Burns’ widow, Stella Burns Butler, sobbed as Judge Bobby Peters read the not guilty verdicts on the malice and felony murder charges. Other members of the Burns family shook their heads and cried.

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[h=1]The Burns murder case: What we know and unanswered questions[/h]...No one had thought to have the dagger handle tested for skin cells that might yield a DNA profile. So, Long got a subpoena and visited Lane to get a saliva swab.

Two years later, police said a lab in Pennsylvania had announced it had a match -- Lane's DNA was on the knife. Lane entered the Muscogee County Jail on May 4, 2010, and stayed there until his first trial ended with a hung jury Sept. 19, 2012, when he was freed on $30,000 bond. ...

...Last week Jackson said his client's long incarceration was particularly galling in light of the DNA results, which turned out to be inconclusive -- a bombshell piece of expert witness testimony in the first trial.

Lane could have contributed to the DNA found on the knife. So could another unknown individual, and so could thousands of others.


Police didn't have a DNA match on the dagger, and they still didn't have a motive. ...

...Slater said police acted on the information they had. "My understanding is the police had received verbal results from the lab, and that they did what they thought was appropriate." ...

...Asked why she tried Lane again, Slater said the case already was cold and waiting longer would not have improved it. Those involved deserved some legal resolution.


"It was an old case the first time we tried it. I think that we have an obligation to the victim's family, to the community, and even to Mr. Lane, to resolve it in the most efficient way we can. … I hope that this has been able to let the Burns family heal and the Lane family move on with their lives."


Constitutional protections against double jeopardy mean Slater never again can try Lane for Burns' homicide. ...

...The evidence from Jim Burns' fatal stabbing will go back into storage, Slater said. Once prosecutors get that evidence from police, it doesn't go back. "Once we take it, we keep it. Whether it's a mistrial or a not guilty verdict, we keep it."


The Burns murder case is closed.

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