Wealthy lawyer shoots wife dead, sells her lux clothes at consignment: CASE REVERSED

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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🗓️ 8 July 2022

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Atlanta lawyer Claud “Tex” McIver's murder conviction has been overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. McIver was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the shooting death of his wife.

The court ruled unanimously that the jury should have been allowed to consider a lesser charge — involuntary manslaughter. Diane McIver died after being shot in the back. A family friend was driving Diane and Tex McIver back to Atlanta from the McIvers’ 84-acre ranch in Putnam County. Diane McIver was in the passenger seat. Tex McIver was in the backseat. As they arrived in the city, McIver reportedly asked for his .38 caliber revolver from the center console — according to one statement because they had driven up on a Black Lives Matter protest, while in another statement he said it was for protection against homeless people.

McIver fell asleep in the back seat, with the gun in his lap in a plastic bag. According to testimony, as they pulled up to a traffic light on Piedmont Avenue, Diane McIver, 64, told her husband to wake up and not fall asleep. Tex McIver fired one shot, which went through the seat and struck his wife in the back. The Supreme Court ruling noted McIver’s contention that he was startled awake by his wife and inadvertently pulled the trigger because of it.

The high court upheld a second conviction for influencing a witness, for which McIver, a well-connected Republican attorney known for union-busting, was sentenced to five years in prison. He has now served four years and 10 months.

Joining Nancy Grace Today:

Darryl Cohen - Former Assistant District Attorney, Fulton County, Georgia, Defense Attorney, Cohen, Cooper, Estep, & Allen, LLC, CCEAlaw.com
Dr. Shari Schwartz - Forensic Psychologist specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy (Miami Beach, FL), Panthermitigation.com, Twitter: @TrialDoc, Author: "Criminal Behavior" and "Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology"
Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, New Haven Police Department, Senior Lecturer, Director of the "Center for Advanced Policing" at the University of New Haven's Forensic Science Department
Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Lecturer: University of Texas and Texas A&M, Affiliated Faculty: University of Texas Medical Branch
Mike Petchenik - Freelance Journalist (covered Trial for WSB TV Channel 2 Atlanta) Twitter: @mike_petchenik

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I remember it like it was yesterday. The moment the, as it was described in the courtroom,
0:21.7	emotionless, high profile lawyer arrives at the hospital with his wife that he just shot from the backseat of their SUV.
0:35.0	She dies emotionless. That is how Tex MacIver was described immediately after shooting his wife dead.
0:45.3	He was convicted and rightfully so, but in their wisdom in the last hours the Georgia Supreme Court has reversed the conviction.
0:58.6	I mean, it's he graced this is crime stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation in Series XM11,
1:05.3	where we still care about missing people, especially children, unsolved, homicides, and miscarriages of justice.
1:15.3	With me and all star panel to make sense of what we know right now, but first of all, take a listen to our friends at 48 hours and 11 a line.
1:23.3	This was a enormously high profile case. They were a big time power couple.
1:29.3	Here you have the vice chair of the state elections board who's a prominent Atlanta lawyer. You have this strikingly beautiful, incredibly successful business woman.
1:39.3	On the night of September 25, 2016, Tex MacIver shot and killed his wife Diane. They had been married for 11 years.
1:49.3	I loved you before this ceremony and I love you more because of it. Is there any scenario where you can think that
1:57.3	Tex would have shot Diane intentionally? Never. Never once.
2:04.3	Tex absolutely a door Diane.
2:07.3	The Fulton County medical examiner is ruled 63 year old Diane MacIver, died of a gunshot wound to the back.
2:13.3	And tonight a close friend of the couple told 11 alive exclusively that two communities are grieving.
2:19.3	The Corey services tower in downtown Atlanta is lit up with this memorial to the company's president Diane MacIver.
2:26.3	She was shot inside a Ford expedition. She rode in late Sunday with her husband Tex and a close family friend as they returned from their Putnam County branch.
2:35.3	I'm very, very good service to putnam County.
2:39.3	Hmm. Well, one of those so-called good citizens of Putnam County that's eaten in Georgia ended up behind bars for shooting his wife dead.
2:48.3	One of the things I remember the most Mike Pacinic is that his story about how and why they gun misfired in the car.
3:00.3	Let's say first of all, he was asleep and then he woke up because there was a bump in the road, I think.
3:09.3	He pulled the trigger and whoops, it shot his wife dead. Then he claimed. Oh, yes, then he claimed it was the black people's fault.
	...

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