5 Things You Need to Know About Bernie Tiede’s New Trial
Chuck Lindell Published 12:01 a.m. CT Sept. 3, 2016 | Updated 11:12 a.m. CT Sept. 25, 2018
Read it at statesman.com online!
Staff
Bernie Tiede is back in court to determine whether he will return to prison, or go free, for the 1996 murder of an elderly companion — a crime that inspired the dark comedy “Bernie” by Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater.
Tiede has been free on bond for the past 23 months after the courts threw out his life sentence in light of new evidence of childhood sexual abuse — trauma that defense lawyers say explained his actions in killing Marjorie Nugent and hiding her body in a freezer. She was discovered nine months later.
Defense attorney Mike DeGeurin (left), Bernie Tiede (center) and attorney Jodi Cole (right) attend an October hearing in the 123rd District Court at Panola County Courthouse in Carthage. Austin American-Statesman
A judge moved the trial to Henderson because of pretrial publicity in Tiede’s hometown of Carthage.
A new prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner, has rejected a previous prosecutor’s push for a sentence of time served.
— Chuck Lindell
