Tri-State Crematory - Motives and Aftermath

Motives and Aftermath

The motives behind Brent Marsh's actions are unclear, as it would have been far less trouble simply to cremate the remains than to dump them. His statement in court when pleading guilty did nothing to clarify: "To those of you who may have come here today looking for answers, I cannot give you." Legal issues presented in the case are novel, including the crafting of the charges against Marsh. Buzz Franklin, the District Attorney of Walker County Georgia, created law in bringing indictments against Marsh. In creating the legal basis for the indictments 787 federal charges were lodged against Marsh. At one point in the criminal case an appeal was pending before the Georgia Supreme Court on certain issues created by the District Attorney in prosecuting Marsh. However, Marsh was able to reach a settlement of the civil class action cases and the criminal charges against him which was later approved by Judge James Bodiford (the judge who presided over the criminal cases in Georgia) and Judge Harold Murphy (the Federal Judge who provided over in the class action cases pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia at Rome Georgia).

Litigation continues in the State of Tennessee against Marsh, where he continues to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination due to the unique nature of the charges that were against him, the unique nature of the sentence against him, and the unique nature of the civil claims pending in the State of Tennessee. The cases in Tennessee have been on appeal on issues relating to who may bring a claim and on Fifth Amendment issues. Many of the claims are dismissed, but some remain in the issues of law surrounding the claims are still very much alive and under legal debate. All of the claims pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia are resolved. The remainder of claims pending in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama have either been dismissed or resolved. The claim filed by Walker County Georgia is currently under review by the Georgia Supreme Court on whether the court will accept an appeal and there are some claims in Bradley County Tennessee waiting trial pending any legal argument and subsequent appeal.This case throughout its pendency in both civil and criminal courts presented unique legal arguments and challenges for the attorneys involved in the litigation. Attorneys examined documentation that was gathered in the criminal investigation that exceeded 100,000 pages of documents, revealing methods of identification, the methodology used in investigating the claim, videos of the investigation, and numerous photographs. At one point discovering a skull and an arm were discovered in the criminal files being examined by the civil attorneys both with human tissue on them. Prosecutors stated that the skull and arm were intentionally a part of the files, but after they were discovered the skull and arm were quickly removed.

In the end, all parties felt that they reached fair settlement of the litigation which included settlements of the class action cases, most of the individual cases, the criminal cases relating to identified bodies, leaving only a few claims in Bradley County Tennessee.

As part of the settlement reached, by spring 2005 all buildings on the Tri-State property were razed. The property will remain in a trust so that it will be preserved in peace and dignity as a secluded memorial to those whose remains were mistreated, and to prevent crematory operations or other inappropriate activities from ever taking place there.

Brent Marsh was sentenced to concurrent sentences in Georgia and Tennessee for all the criminal charges related to the incident. He received a sentence of twelve years in prison as well as seventy-five years of probation in Georgia. The sentence was the product of a plea bargain which was reached contemporaneously with the settlement of the civil litigation. McCracken Poston and Ron Cordova crafted the plea agreement while Stuart James, Frank Jenkins and Robert Smalley concluded a settlement of the federal civil action after a series of meetings in Rome, Georgia which also included Poston and the District Attorney prosecuting the Georgia state criminal case against Marsh. The global settlement ended the federal class lawsuit as well as the criminal cases in Georgia and Tennessee.

On February 7, 2007, a week before the five year anniversary of the discoveries at the former crematory, the criminal defense attorneys for Marsh revealed that physiological testing had indicated that Brent Marsh was a victim of mercury toxicity from the cremation of bodies with mercury dental amalgam. They stated that a faulty ventilation system exposed both Marsh and his father to toxic levels of mercury.