Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. Tameshia Shelton, a Clay County mother of four serving life in prison on a murder conviction, will finally get what she said she’s been praying for — another day in court to try to prove her innocence. In a 6-1 vote Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court declined to disturb the December decision by the state Court of Appeals ordering a new trial for Shelton. The appeals court held that prosecutors failed to prove Shelton was guilty of murder “beyond a reasonable doubt” when she stood trial in 2015 in the fatal shooting of her youngest sister’s 21-year-old boyfriend, Danelle Young. “This nightmare is close to being finally over,” her middle sister, Shenikia Shelton, said Thursday. “The missing piece of our family’s puzzle is about to be home.” The justices’ decision came days after Mississippi Today published its four-year investigation that found that Tameshia Shelton has remained behind bars for 11 years, even though much of the evidence in Young’s 2009 death suggested that he killed himself — including an apparent suicide note never presented to the jury. Shelton’s trial lawyer, Rod Ray, failed to introduce Young’s apparent suicide note as evidence — a key reason why the courts have ordered a new trial for her. The appeals court found Ray was so “ineffective” as Shelton’s defense attorney that he violated her constitutional right to a fair trial. Other gaps have emerged in Shelton’s case in the years since her murder trial. The prosecution’s case against her relied upon a deputy state medical examiner’s official ruling that Young’s death was a homicide. The pathologist later called the conclusion an “error” due to lack of experience. Prosecutors also used testimony from Clay County sheriff’s deputies that conflicted with actual records.  “We’re very pleased,” one of Shelton’s current lawyers, Sandra Levick of the Mississippi Innocence Project, said of the Supreme Court decision. “We look forward to Ms. Shelton returning to Clay County where justice can finally be done.” The case will return to the Clay County Circuit Court and the same trial judge, Circuit Judge James T. Kitchens, who previously denied Shelton a new trial after three days of hearings in 2021 and 2022. Prosecution would fall to the office of District Attorney Scott Colom, who supported those hearings. In 2021, Kitchens reassigned the case to the attorney general’s office. Colom could not be reached Thursday for comment, but he previously told Mississippi Today that if the case were returned to his office, he would “look at what the facts show and do justice.” If Shelton is freed, she would become the seventh person prosecuted in Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District to be exonerated of murder — the most of any district in the state. Like Shelton, the district’s six exonerees were all prosecuted under Colom’s predecessor as district attorney, Forrest Allgood. Shenikia Shelton said she and her family are “so very happy and thankful to God for everything.” She thanked her sister’s lawyers and Mississippi Today for “shedding light on the injustices. So many doors have been closed in our faces trying to fight this.” Madeline Nguyen is a Roy Howard Fellow at Mississippi Today. Ilyssa Daly is an investigative reporter who previously worked with Mississippi Today to help investigate this case. ...read more read less