JUSTICE ON HOLD : Hoppe to Face New Trial for Murder 31 Years Ago, After First Ends in Mistrial

Even though the jury could not reach a verdict in the trial of her son’s alleged killer, Georgia Hudson says she’s not ready to give up her quest for justice in the 1957 shooting.

“We’re going all the way . . . we’ll get it,” Hudson said after a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the case against former Auburn football star Bobby Hoppe.

The Hamilton Country Criminal Court jury was deadlocked, 10-2 for acquittal, after four hours of deliberation.

Georgia Hudson prompted police last year to reopen their investigation of the July 20, 1957, slaying of Don Hudson, a 24-year-old moonshine runner.

Hudson was driving his 1948 DeSoto down a street near his North Chattanooga home about 1 a.m. when he was shot in the face with a small-bore shotgun.

Last March, after a 14-month investigation led by police Detective Richard Heck, Hoppe, the 53-year-old athletic director at Chattanooga State Community Technical College, was indicted in the slaying.

Hoppe, a halfback on Auburn’s 1957 national championship football team, had been linked to Hudson’s death--but never charged--in a 1957 coroner’s inquest and a 1966 grand jury investigation.

But it wasn’t until taking the witness stand Monday that Hoppe publicly admitted to pulling the trigger on the night that Hudson died.

The defendant contended the shooting was self-defense, claiming he fired the shotgun only after Hudson drove up from behind Hoppe’s Ford convertible and pointed a pistol at him.

Prosecutor Tom Evans, however, said Hoppe went after Hudson because he believed Hudson had beaten Joan Hoppe Voiles--Hoppe’s sister and Hudson’s ex-girlfriend.

“Once there was an admission by the defendant . . . that he had in fact killed Donald Hudson, the case became much easier to prosecute and try,” Evans told the Chattanooga Times.

The seven-day trial, attended by members of the Hoppe and Hudson families, had conflicting testimony.

The state produced a witness who said Hoppe threatened to shoot Hudson. A defense witness said Hudson threatened Hoppe. Other witnesses disputed both claims.

Another state witness said he’d heard a man boast of being the driver when Hoppe shot Hudson. That man, as well as Hoppe, denied the claim, and no one besides Hoppe has been charged.

Several people testified that Hudson was known as a violent man who often carried a gun, and another witness said he’d seen a .38-caliber pistol in Hudson’s car a few hours before his death.

But Evans observed that no pistol was found at the scene, and he wondered why, if the shooting was in self-defense, Hoppe waited 31 years before admitting the slaying.

The attorneys will meet with Judge DiRisio on July 25 to schedule a new trial, and Evans said a full docket will push it back at least until September.

Under Tennessee law, Hoppe may be tried only for first-degree murder unless he waives the statute of limitations for lesser-related charges such as second-degree murder or manslaughter.

He refused to do that at the trial, and attorneys for both sides said there has been no talk of a plea agreement.

“I do not look forward to (retrying the case),” said defense attorney Leroy Phillips. “No. No. But I’m prepared to do so.”