ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991                   TAG: 9103070413
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: GLOUCESTER                                LENGTH: Short


JUDGE LIMITS RETRIAL TO SECOND-DEGREE MURDER

Herbert G. Fisher cannot be retried for first-degree murder in the 1987 death of his wife, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Retired Circuit Court Judge Henry L. Lam ruled after a special hearing Wednesday that Fisher's April trial must be limited to second-degree murder. Lam ruled that the 38-year-old archaeologist was found innocent of first-degree, or premeditated, murder in his first trial last fall, even though that proceeding ended in a mistrial.

Commonwealth's Attorney William H. Shaw III maintained that the judge who presided over the first trial had nullified the jury's verdict in declaring a mistrial.

Retired Judge Morris B. Gutterman declared the mistrial because he believed a televised interview with an alternate juror dismissed from the case could have influenced the jury.

- Associated Press



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