Jennifer Crumbley, the first US parent held criminally accountable for a mass school shooting committed by her child, has asked a Michigan judge to overturn her conviction. This appeal claims that the prosecutor's office failed to disclose agreements with two witnesses, potentially compromising the fairness of her trial.
The witnesses, Nick Ejak and Shawn Hopkins, employees at Oxford High School, were involved in meetings with Ethan Crumbley, Jennifer's son, and his parents before Ethan committed a mass shooting at the school in 2021. Ethan, 15 at the time and now 18, was sentenced to life for his actions, which resulted in the deaths of four students.
Jennifer Crumbley's appellate lawyer, Michael Dezsi, argued that the prosecutors' agreement with Ejak and Hopkins was not shared with her defense team, violating procedural rules. Dezsi contended that the defense could have challenged the witnesses' credibility if aware of this deal. Dezsi said: "They dangled that carrot over those witnesses to get them to cooperate."
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The assistant prosecutor, Marc Keast, countered by saying his office was not obliged to disclose these agreements since Ejak and Hopkins were not charged with any crimes. Keast said: "Their attorneys reached out to us. There was no promise. There was no threats. There was no discussion about testimony. We talked about what they did, what happened on Nov. 30th." (This story was generated by Newser's AI chatbot. Source: the AP)
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