Friday marks day nine of the Rodney Hinton Jr. trial. Hinton Jr. is charged with aggravated murder after hitting and killing Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson with his car.
Read Thursday's trial coverage | Judge rules to add lesser reckless homicide considerations in Rodney Hinton Jr. trial
On Thursday, Hamilton County Judge Jody M. Luebbers has granted Rodney Hinton Jr.'s defense's request for lesser charge considerations. Reckless homicide charges are now on the table; the jury can consider them in their verdict. Current attorney and retired judge Fanon Rucker explained how a lesser charge fits in the full picture:
The jury will be looking at Hinton Jr.’s intent in hitting Deputy Henderson with his car. A lesser conviction would depend on evidence presented in the trial. A lesser conviction would also mean a lesser prison sentence for Hinton Jr. It would entail nine to 36 months in prison as opposed to a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
One of the other possibilities we have heard throughout the trial is a “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity” verdict. A “NGRI” verdict does not mean Hinton Jr. would walk free at the end of the day; instead, he would go through additional court proceedings to determine what treatment Hinton Jr. would receive. "There's no one year, there's no ten years, there's no 30 years to life,” Rucker explained. “That person is hospitalized for an indefinite period, with periodic reviews of their status."
Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity is an “affirmative defense,” meaning the defense acknowledges the person committed the offense, but at the time, the person did not appreciate or understand the nature of their actions so they cannot be guilty of them.
Rucker explained a NGRI claim is difficult to prove in court, as the defense has to bring a jury back in time to establish what was going on in a person’s mind at the time of the incident.
