McCracken Poston

McCracken King Poston Jr. (born October 24, 1959), also known as McCracken Poston or "Ken" Poston, is an American criminal defense attorney,^[2] former politician,^[3] and part-time juvenile court judge.^[4] He gained national attention for several notable cases which were featured on TV series specials such as CNN Presents,^[5][6] Dateline NBC,^[7] A&E's American Justice^[8] and Forensic Files.^[9] Poston is a practicing defense attorney in Georgia and Tennessee. Poston was elected and served as a state representative in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1988 to 1996.

Early life and education

McCracken Poston was born and raised in Northwest Georgia. After attending public schools in Catoosa County, Poston attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for his undergraduate studies, and then he went on to graduate from the University of Georgia Law School where he was president of his class.^[10]

Career

Poston is a former Democratic state representative. Previously, Poston was an assistant district attorney for Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and the former president of Catoosa Country Chamber of Commerce. He was also an adjunct professor of American government at University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.^[11]

Poston is an active juvenile court judge and practices criminal law.^[12]

Political career

In 1988, Poston began serving as state representative from Catoosa County where remained for a tenure of eight years. During his term, Poston was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives Defense and Veterans Affairs, Education, and Judiciary committees.^[13] After four terms, Poston left the state legislature and ran for the United States Congress as the Democratic nominee in the 9th district.^[14] He was defeated in the general election by incumbent Rep. Nathan Deal.^[15]

Legal career

Poston started a solo law firm in 1989 after briefly working for the Offices of Clifton Patty, and he has served as a juvenile court judge since 1997.^[16]

Notable cases

Throughout his career, Poston has had several high profile cases including the following:

Alvin "The Zenith Man" Ridley

Poston represented Alvin Ridley in an eight day trial in January 1999. Ridley's wife, Virginia, had been found dead in their home after not being seen in public for nearly three decades. Ridley was arrested eight months later and charged with murder, but claimed his epileptic wife died in her sleep. During the trial, Poston presented the courtroom with hundreds of notes and scraps of paper that Virginia journaled on about their reclusive life together. After the testimony of defense witness Dr. Braxton Wannamaker, an expert on seizure disorders, and the lack of a motive from the prosecution, the jury found Ridley innocent of murder and he was acquitted of all charges.^[17] The case was featured on the A&E series, American Justice ('Death in a Small Town'), as well as episodes of Extra and Forensic Files.^[18][7]

Byron "Low Tax" Looper

Poston represented Byron "Low Tax" Looper in the Putnam, County, Tennessee case of the murder of Tennessee State Senator Tommy Burks in 1998.^[19] Looper was the local tax assessor who had won his position after changing his middle name from "Anthony" to "Low Tax." Looper was challenging the incumbent Senator Burks (D-Cookeville), until Burks was found shot to death on his farm just days before the election. A write-in campaign elected the Senator's, Charlotte Burks to the seat. Thought to be a difficult client for the six previous attorneys who had attempted to represent Looper, was finally represented through trial by Poston and Ron Cordova of California. Looper was convicted of the murder of Senator Burks in 2000, and received a life without parole sentence.^[20][21] Looper was found dead in his prison cell in 2013, a death that Poston has cited as "suspicious."^[22][23] The case was featured on episodes of American Justice ('Eliminating the Competition') and Primetime Thursday ('The Last Campaign').^[7]

The Tri-State Crematory Cases

In 2002, Poston represented Ray Brent Marsh of the Tri-State Crematory who had been charged with two counts theft by deception for each body that was identified on his property in Noble, Georgia.^[24] 334 bodies and remains of the deceased had been discovered at the Tri-State Crematory, a family-owned business that Marsh had been managing after his father's health failed. Marsh was cited with 787 felony counts, amounting to a possible sentence of thousands of years in prison. Poston put forth an aggressive defense for Marsh, threatening to require Walker County to conduct and pay for a costly trial that could potentially take months, and was partially successful a change of venue effort in securing that the jury would be acquired from out of the area, which would have added great additional cost to Walker County. Poston also attacked the theories of prosecution that the state was utilizing, questioning how a human body could be the subject of a "fiduciary" relationship, and how a dead human body could be given the requisite monetary value to ascertain whether each body represented a misdemeanor or felony. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed with Poston of the need to clarify these issues and certified the questions for pre-trial appeal. After the high court ruling, Poston was able to arrange for Marsh to accept a plea deal of a 12 year sentence in prison, with eligibility for parole.^[25][26][27] The case appeared on an episode of Crossfire ('Should government increase regulations on funeral').^[7]

"Operation Meth Merchant"

Poston represented a number of South Asian-born defendants and revealed many problems inherent in "Operation Meth Merchant" – a joint Federal and State task force targeting South Asian owned and operated convenience stores in Northwest Georgia. An operative would attempt to purchase pseudoephedrine from the stores while uttering something that the government stated informed the clerks that the operative intended to manufacture methamphetamine with the pseudoephedrine. Poston attacked the scheme, pointing out that many of the clerks do not understand English sufficiently to ascertain what the operative was talking about. Furthermore, Poston began to attack the method of the task force in identifying the clerks, which was a scanning of license plates and acquisition of registration and drivers licenses of the owners of the cars, followed by presenting the license photos to the operative to identify the suspects.

Poston filed a number of "Alibi" notices in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in his cases. Poston was able to prove the operation's methods were so faulty that there were three of his clients misidentified by the government operative. Poston proved that one of his clients was picking up her child from daycare several miles away in another state when the government claimed she was selling the operative pseudoephedrine.^[28][29] On another client Poston proved that the man was in India when the government said he was in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. Finally, for another young client arrested upon the return from his honeymoon Poston was able to prove he was working in a Subway sandwich shop on Long Island, New York when the government said he was in North Georgia, "knowingly" selling pseudoephedrine for use in the manufacture of methamphetamine.^[30][31] The case was detailed and featured on an episode of Asia Today ('Meth Persecutions of Indians in Georgia').^[7]

References

External links

• Law Firm of McCracken Poston