Family Outraged Over New Trial

  A family in Dade County, Georgia cannot understand how Bobby Lee Morgan is getting a new trial. Late last year a jury convicted him of vehicular homicide for his head on crash that killed Susan Lane and 15 year old Jennifer Jackson.

   The Dade County jail released him Friday afternoon. The information surrounding his release was tightly guarded because of the controversy surrounding his deadly head-on crash. Members of the convicting jury made several mistakes and that's why Morgan gets a new trial.

    Back in August of 2005, Morgan's blue truck ran head-on into the truck driven by Susan Lane. The crash killed Lane and 15 year old Jennifer Jackson. Three other children and a baby were all injured in the crash. Lane was in a lawn chair in the bed of the truck. They had just returned from a pool party.

     Morgan had actually been indicted for D-U-I, but it was dismissed because the trooper did not get Morgan's consent to take his blood. And on Friday, Judge Kristina Cook Graham granted Morgan a new trial.

     The judge found juror misconduct happened, in part, when jurors Beth Crattie and Robert Ball discussed during deliberations information gathered from independent internet legal research.

     That is banned behavior by a jury. Four jury members said because of that information, they changed their vote from acquittal to guilty. Now, Morgan gets a new trial and Jackson's relatives say they want an end to this ordeal.

    Her grandmother, Eva Hurst, said, "In my dying breath, I will get justice for my granddaughter, that's how I feel about it."

    Her father, Ricky Stephenson, found the timing very hard to stomach when he learned Morgan was back out on the streets, free again. "I don't even know anymore, it's a hell of a Father's Day present, I can tell you that," Stephenson said in reference to Morgan's freedom and new trial.

     His bond was set at the same amount as before trial, $50,000.

Coming up on NewsChannel 9 at 6, you'll hear how this family has already seen Morgan in person since his release and other mistakes jury members made, Kim.