INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors have dismissed charges against a Kansas City area woman accused of beating another woman to death with a baseball bat because of a technical issue.
The Kansas City Star reports that 35-year-old Courtney Hackney, of Independence, was released from jail this week.
Jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict during her second-degree murder trial in the May 2017 killing of 57-year-old Holly Barnett. Several issues then arose scheduling a retrial. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges, with the intention to refile them later, because a key witness wasn’t available.
The issue was that Hackney, who had already been subjected to trial, did not affirmatively consent to the refiling. Prosecutors determined that made the case subject to a legal doctrine that protects defendants from being tried twice for the same charge.
