The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
New trial for Taylor set in March New attorney requests medical experts for defense
By Dan DuChene, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 17, 2008
Photo by Dan DuChene
Orange Taylor III and his newly appointed attorney Laura Graham will face a new trial in the murder case of Laura Dickinson who was found dead in her dorm room in 2006.
It will be more than a year since Orange Amir Taylor III was arrested for murder when he stands trial again on March 31.
Facing charges of murder, criminal sexual conduct, home invasion and larceny, Taylor was arrested in March 2006 and went to trial in October. However, a dead-locked jury led to a mistrial last year.
The second trial originally was scheduled for Jan. 28, but a later date was requested by Taylor's new public defender, Laura Graham, at a pretrial held last week.
The Taylor family was in the courtroom with friends and a preacher from the family's church when Graham requested the later date and then asked Taylor be released from jail on his own recognizance to serve in his defense. She said her client was willing to go under house arrest and wear a tether to ensure he would not flee.
"The family is willing to incur that expense," Graham said to Judge Archie Brown. "They've been entirely supportive."
The prosecution's lawyer, Blaine Longsworth, argued against the motion. He said Taylor's prior offenses and the severity of the charges against him should mean he stay in the county jail without bond.
"He is not someone who can be trusted," Longsworth said.
Brown denied the motion, but did allow the defense to hire two experts for its case after Graham had requested three. He allowed a cardiologist and a medical examiner but denied a fiber expert.
Alvin Keel, who served as Taylor's attorney in the October mistrial and later took him self off as council in December for unexplained reasons, had set up a scenario where Laura Dickinson, the 22-year-old EMU student Taylor stands accused of murdering, died of a heart arrhythmia and not asphyxiation. He cross examined most of the witnesses but did not call anyone to the stand for Taylor's defense.
Though Taylor's semen had been found on Dickinson's thigh and bed sheet, his defense in October alleged it had been put there after Dickinson's death. To combat the scenario from Longsworth, where Dickinson had been smothered by a pillow, Keel pointed out Dickinson had a hearth arrhythmia in the past and had not been able to have a heart test performed during autopsy due to decomposition. He also was critical of the arrival at asphyxia because it had been determined by process of elimination.
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