Judge's addiction leads to retrial for convicted widow

Published May 13, 2016

A woman whose two husbands died under suspicious circumstances will get a retrial in the second death because her judge was so addicted to painkillers that he fell asleep on the bench.

Raynella Dossett Leath is serving life in prison after being convicted of murder in the 2003 shooting death of David Leath.

Knoxville media are reporting Friday that she was granted a trial after an investigation later proved that Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner used drugs during her trial, robbing her of a constitutionally sound proceeding.

The widow was indicted by a grand jury on charges of killing her first husband, prosecutor Ed Dossett, 16 years after his body was found trampled by cattle. Those charges were later dropped.

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/judges-addiction-leads-to-retrial-for-convicted-widow