Vermont Supreme Court

So in that case, there was an entire trial before a court that was not properly constitutionally composed.

The case went up to the Supreme Court of Vermont on appeal for substantive issues that happened in the trial and the court found that it couldn't even consider those issues because any order from that court was void.

There's similar case law out of Texas and there's similar case law from the U.S. Supreme Court that unconstitutional, any order from an unconstitutional court is a nullity.

I want to jump back to you said that the district court is divested jurisdiction, but isn't it true under this approach that the district court judge, the single judge is remains eligible to be selected at random, just like any other district judge and could therefore have an equal chance of being on that panel.

They also challenged the mandatory life without parole sentence, arguing that Vermont law allowed the same underlying conduct to be prosecuted under another murder statute carrying a lesser possible punishment.

But the Vermont Supreme Court rejected both arguments.

On February 4th, 2011, the court affirmed Brian's conviction and sentence.

With that ruling, the central legal questions in Michelle's case were settled, and by then, the impact of Michelle's murder had already stretched far beyond the courtroom.

Some of the abutters didn't agree, and the, and the laws weren't clear at the time.

D- does, does this fit or, or not? And so it took going all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court to decide whether or not-

Wow

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And that doesn't mean that they're all going to be thrown in jail, but they're going to be held accountable for violating the law.

Plus, the Vermont Supreme Court sides with the Scott administration on in-person work.

And a jury finds Jason Eaton guilty of attempted murder.

All that and more ahead on Vermont This Week.

Thank you all for being here.

So some breaking news from Friday morning to start out with.

The Vermont Supreme Court unanimously sided with Governor Phil Scott about in-person work for state employees.

This debate about whether state employees can and should be required to work from the office has been going on for more than a year now.