You don’t often see states’ slayer statutes invoked. We encounter them only rarely in our practice, and when we do, it’s in cases that generally go unreported. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that two lawyers charged with violating the Georgia slayer statute are about to go to trial. And, in a recent Wisconsin case, stepkids actually tried to use that state’s slayer statute to disinherit their stepmother and stepsister.

Like most states’ laws, Georgia’s slayer statute (O.C.G.A. 53-1-5) prohibits a person who kills another from inheriting any financial assets from the victim.

But this summer, for the first time in the state's history, two lawyers were charged with violating this law.

In September of 2002, Debra Post was charged with murdering her husband, Jerry Post. Attorneys Candace E. Rader and Valerie Cooke, both of Carrollton, Ga., took on Debra’s defense.

Georgia investigators determined that Candace and Valerie both knowingly accepted over $320,000 of assets belonging in Jerry’s estate as payment for Debra’s legal defense fees. Apparently, these assets included life insurance proceeds and real estate, which Debra deeded over to Candace and Valerie.

In September of 2003, six months after using Jerry’s assets to pay Candace and Valerie, Debra pled guilty to felony murder. She is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Investigators, having apparently determined that they had enough evidence against Candace and Valerie, arrested the two attorneys and took them to the Douglas County Jail. The attorneys were then indicted on charges related to theft from a murder victim’s estate (specifically, “Theft by Taking” and “Theft by Receiving”).

David McDade, the district attorney of Douglas County, told Trusts & Estates that pre-trial motions will be made in January. The trial should be on the calendar sometime in February or March.

Whatever happens at trial, the moral of this story clearly is: Know where your fees are coming from and consider having them approved by the court from time to time—whenever feasible.

Apparently, Georgia isn’t the only state dusting off its slayer statute. In Wisconsin, some stepkids thought it might help them win in probate court against their stepmother and stepsister.