In April 2006, I filed an item about the legal travails of Gordon Lee, a comic book shop owner who had been charged by Georgia prosecutors with handing obscene materials to a child. Back then, the original charges had been dropped just as the trial was ready to begin, as the DA's office admitted it had been using faulty evidence—but then they turned around and re-charged him on the "right" evidence.

So that trial was set to begin yesterday—until the prosecutors screwed up yet again. In an email from a representative of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which is paying for Lee's representation in the proceedings, it's reported that the state prosecutor, after having been instructed not to admit statements from witnesses about Lee's character or his previous conviction for selling "adult" comics, went right ahead and made those elements a central part of his opening statement. Defense immediately sought, and obtained, a mistrial.

"We believe that prosecutors induced this mistrial on purpose, because we had a jury that looked more defense oriented," said lead defense counsel Alan Begner in a statement. "We're prepared to quickly file a motion to argue that no new trial should be scheduled because this mistrial was intentional and constitutes prosecutorial misconduct... It's been three years since this case began, and for three years Gordon has had this hanging over his head. Today his good name is still not cleared." The CBLDF has spent more than $80,000 on Lee's defense in the two-and-a-half years since his arrest.