Huntsville Man Accused of Dismembering StepFather Released

[Nut44x4]

   Just one more instance of our Injustice System.....

Huntsville Man Accused of Dismembering StepFather Released

Posted: Oct 6, 2010 12:19 PM EDT

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - A man who had been hospitalized after being found not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease in the killing and dismemberment of his stepfather in Huntsville has been released.

U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler issued an order that resulted in the release on Friday of 41-year-old Michael Douglas Hart.

Hart was charged with murder in the killing in 1997 of his stepfather, Girts Upeslacis.

Hart dismembered Upeslacis and buried the body parts around Huntsville. Huntsville police said Hart later threatened to kill investigators in the case.

Coogler upheld the findings of U.S. Magistrate Judge Harwell G. Davis III, who followed the recommendations of two psychiatrists and the director of the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility and ruled that Hart no longer suffers from any mental illness.  

http://www.waaytv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13278046

[Nut44x4]

Michael Douglas Hart, accused of killing stepfather in 1997, released from Tuscaloosa mental facility

Published: Wednesday, October 06, 2010
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A Huntsville man accused of killing his stepfather and scattering his dismembered body parts across Madison County in 1997 was released from a Tuscaloosa mental facility Friday, authorities said.

Michael Douglas Hart, 41, was charged with capital murder in 1997 after police found the remains of his stepfather along Aldridge Creek, said former Huntsville police investigator and state Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Capshaw. Hart's stepfather, Girts Upeslacis, had been missing for a year when his remains were found.

During the trial in 2000, Hart admitted to killing his stepfather, chopping up the body and burying the parts in different places throughout the county. He also threatened to kill police investigators working the case.

McCutcheon investigated the case in 1997 and said Wednesday morning he couldn't believe Hart had been released from a psychiatric facility without notice.

Hart was found not-guilty by reason of insanity in 2000, McCutcheon said, when a state psychiatrist told a judge during the trial Hart suffered from a major mental illness and substance-induced psychosis.

In 2004, Hart escaped from the Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility in Tuscaloosa and fled to Utah where he surrendered to authorities.

McCutcheon said Hart was released by a judge last week after two psychiatrists and the director of Taylor Hardin and ruled that Hart no longer suffered from any mental illness. McCutcheon said the district attorney was not consulted prior to Hart's release, nor was he.

"I'm at a loss at how this could happen," McCutcheon said. "You would think a judge would want to talk to the people involved in the case."

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/10/post_431.html

[Nut44x4]

Doomed I tell ya......we're all doomed.