Former Football Star Bobby Hoppe Won’t Be Retried, Prosecutor Says
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Former Auburn University football star Bobby Hoppe will not be retried for a 31-year-old murder because there is no new evidence in the case, a prosecutor said Monday.
“We have gone to great extremes to try to find new proof in this case . . . there is no new proof. There is nothing different than what we had initially,†Dist. Atty. Gen. Gary Gerbitz said.
Hoppe, 53, went on trial last month for the July 20, 1957, shotgun death of Don Hudson, but a mistrial was declared when the jury deadlocked, 10-2, for acquittal.
The state contended that Hoppe, then a 22-year-old college student, killed Hudson because Hudson, then 24, had beaten Joan Hoppe Voiles, Hudson’s former girlfriend and Hoppe’s sister.
Hoppe claimed self-defense, testifying that he fired a shotgun at Hudson only after Hudson drove up beside his car on a dark street and pointed a pistol at him.
Gerbitz said that the state was handicapped because it could try Hoppe only for first-degree murder, because the statute of limitations for lesser degrees of homicide has expired.
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