I know I’m a couple weeks late with a post about this, but since Elijah Reid’s trial ended, I’ve been fairly busy. So I’m sorry this is so late, but I figure it’s worth talking about here.
As you’ve hopefully read, Elijah Reid changed his mind. On Jan. 21, Mr. Reid filed a motion in Rock Island County Circuit Court to change his sentencing agreement.
For those just tuning in, I’ll recap. Mr. Reid was convicted on Jan. 15 of killing Ryan Ferry and Jermaine Robinson. The pair was found in Mr. Ferry’s car in Rock Island on April 11, 2008. Both had been shot in the head. Though prosecutors were going to seek the death penalty against him, he agreed to a sentence of life in prison and to give up all his appeal rights. Prosecutors agreed to the sentence and that was the end.
Or so we thought.
“I did not know what I was doing at the time because I had a lot of family members telling me what to do and I was not in my right state of mind,” Mr. Reid said in the handwritten motion. “I want a chance to fight for my life because I did not do this crime.”
Here’s the problem. The motion says he wants to withdraw his “plea agreement.” But as his lawyer, Stephen Richards, pointed out to me when I called him that day, Elijah Reid did not make a plea agreement. He made a sentencing agreement and gave up his right to appeal. And Mr. Richards was as unsure as I was as to where things would go next.
My guess is that Mr. Richards has a better idea by now. But I don’t. All I know is that there’s a hearing on the motion Feb. 9. It will be interesting to see what happens. It appears that this motion took at least Mr. Richards by surprise and I know I was certainly surprised by it.
I guess all we can do now is wait for the hearing, so stay tuned. I’ll hopefully have an update before the hearing. But even if I don’t, I’ll definitely have one after.
I’m also hoping to retool this blog a bit. After all, the trial is over, but there’s a lot of great courtroom drama going on in Rock Island County and I’m hoping my editors let me keep using this space to talk about it all.
