It’s hard to imagine a bigger emotional rollercoaster than going from “guilty of murder and spending the rest of your life in prison” to “not guilty and free to go home with your family” in the space of a few seconds, but that was the experience of one man standing trial in an Atlanta courtroom this week.
The judge completely flubbed his lines and read the verdict as “guilty”, before correcting himself:
Atlanta Judge Henry Newkirk initially read the verdict as “guilty” before correcting it to “not guilty” in Alton Oliver’s trial for the killing of Fulton County Deputy James Thomas. pic.twitter.com/CRTK257wxG
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) August 15, 2025
Straight out of a Naked Gun movie or something. Obviously we’ve all been guilty of misspeaking at some point in our lives, just probably not when we’re reading out the verdict to a murder trial that will determine whether a man spends the rest of his days behind bars or not. A real off-day for Fulton County Georgia’s honorable Henry Newkirk.
The case itself was centred around the shooting death of 24-year-old off-duty police officer James Thomas in 2022. The defendant, Alton Oliver, was arrested in connection with the incident days later.
As per Atlanta News, Oliver told the court that he was walking home from work at around 4:30 a.m. that day when Thomas repeatedly called to him from his car, trying to solicit sex. On his third approach, Thomas allegedly began speeding toward him, and Oliver said he shot out of fear.
I guess they must have bought that story and whatever other evidence was presented and so Alton Oliver was free to go. I’m not sure how exactly everyone knew to correct the judge after he said ‘guity’ but I suspect someone in his camp must have known that things were going well for him up to that point. I’ve also just read something about the way the judge worded his verdict that would only indicate a ‘not guilty’ ruling, but the point is that it was clear that the judge f***ed up.
Onwards and upwards for everyone involved.
For the man who decided to use an AI-generated lawyer in court, click HERE. It didn’t exactly go to plan.
