Judge delays trial against Beverly Hall until August

ATLANTA — A Fulton County judge has postponed the trial for Beverly Hall for her involvement in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal until August.

The trial for Hall, the former APS superintendent, was set to start later this month. But last week her lawyers asked the judge to push it back, saying their client, charged in a racketeering conspiracy, is too sick.

Hall is fighting stage 4 breast cancer and attorneys say her condition has worsened.
 
At a hearing Monday, Hall's oncologist told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter that Hall is terminally ill and her breast cancer is so advanced a trial would put Hall's life at risk.
 
An oncologist hired by prosecutors testified Hall should stand trial now because the 67-year-old may only have a few months left to live.
 
But in a highly unusual scene, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who attended the hearing, stood up and begged the court to show Hall mercy.
 
"It would be merciful for this court, these prosecutors, this whole city if this trial never took place," Young told the court. "It's a waste of taxpayer money. She's got to stand before God before long, both sides say, let God judge her. I don't want God to judge you all because I think justice has to have some mercy to it to be relevant."

Hall is one of more than a dozen former APS employees set to go to trial for falsifying standardized test scores nearly five years ago.
 
Twenty-one others have already pleaded out.
 
In a motion filed Monday, Hall's defense team asked Baxter to push Hall's trial back six to eight months so she could continue her cancer treatment. 
 
Ultimately Baxter delayed Hall's trial until August.

WSBTV