Prosecutors don’t want Pittman to get new trial

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Prosecutors say a judge should reconsider granting a new trial to a South Carolina man convicted of killing his grandparents when he was 12 years old.

In a scathing court filing, the attorney general’s office said Circuit Judge Roger Young was wrong in July when he gave Christopher Pittman a new trial. Young  ruled Pittman’s attorneys didn’t pursue a plea deal and focused too hard on the role the antidepressant Zoloft may have played in the crime.

Prosecutors say defendants have no right to plea deals and Pittman’s lawyers knew the so-called Zoloft defense was risky. They also point out Pittman’s family  sought out the attorney who developed the drug defense.

Pittman was sentenced to 30 years in prison after he was convicted of murder in the 2001 killings in Chester.
   
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