Any the verdict is…‘Guilty’ despite no evidence to show that and lots that he was innocent including DNA or any other similar evidence from forensics and ballistic experts. I am really upset about this and ready to declare war on the state of Texas. Small town Texas juries are as dumb as they come (I grew up in the general area) but even they should realized that there is such a thing as reasonable doubt.
The only shining light is that the original conviction was vacated legally speaking so this was a fresh trial and he can start again with appeals. It will take years and lots of resources but the Innocence Project that has backed him has lots of stamina and determination but not a lot of money. There are a lot of avenues they can pursue including a pardon by the governor but all of those take lots of time.
It has taken years worth of work to even get to this point and the only result was that a bunch of backwards idiots thought that it was better to be safe than sorry and destroy someone’s life even more in the process.
I find it difficult to believe that he was convicted, twice, based on no evidence at all. Is there anything resembling an unbiased site to present any of the prosecution’s side of the case?
Your distress at the outcome is understandable, and my condolences to you.
Slight nitpick: The word felony these days does not necessarily imply any element of violence in the crime. I believe possession of certain drugs is a felony, even if nobody except the user has been put in harm’s way.
Information is pretty thin, but here’s a little background. Maybe there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him, but he doesn’t come off looking particularly clean, either–assuming that this info is on the up and up.
There is no forensic evidence that showed or proved that he did anything wrong. He took his kids to school without his stepson that refused to go because he was fighting with his mother at the time. When he got back home, his wife was shot to death in their bedroom and his stepson was also dead from a seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound in their garage with his own rifle still laying on him. I have seen the photos and everything indicates a simple murder-suicide and that was what the initial police investigation showed. It was only much later that anyone even thought to concoct an alternate theory because they don’t like murders in that area if there is no one to prosecute. That begins the nightmare.
His previous trial and conviction were completely overturned for numerous reasons including corruption. The original trial never happened legally speaking but even the latest one is not independent. It is impossible to get a fair jury there because it is a rural area, everyone already has a strong opinion and random selections of people aren’t very logically or scientifically minded. That was the mistake the defense made. They thought people would listen to the forensic and logical evidence but all they really heard was a prosecution story about a family in trouble and why it may have been plausible for someone to come up with an elaborate plot to kill two people at different times and then cover it up.
At this point, there are no unbiased sources unfortunately because there are two firmly divided factions with the defense being the larger one. The pro-prosecution side is much more radical than the defense and they will stop at nothing to make sure he stays in prison and his wife’s family keeps control of their kids facts be damned. They knew and loved two dead people and want someone to pay for it even though one of the dead was responsible for the entire thing.
I grew up with Jason and the rest of his family and I cannot even imagine how he would hurt someone let alone be responsible for a double-murder. It doesn’t fit at all with his demeanor or his family’s values. As noted, I know an unusual number of people convicted of murder personally and they are all guilty as hell with the exception of this one.
I will try to provide the trial transcripts when they come out so that you can make up your own mind. I am not saying that it is impossible he is guilty. I don’t believe it personally but I do truly believe the defense exceeded the standard for reasonable doubt by a large margin.
Thanks for the cite. I note that even the appeals court that ordered the re-trial said that the evidence to convict at the first trial was legally sufficient.
Two juries disagreed.
Again, I understand how stressful this must be for you, and I am sorry for that.
I think that too many people are overlooking the fact that circumstantial evidence is evidence.
I read one of the links, somewhere here on this thread, and I got a really strong impression that the case was not a bum’s rushing of the defendant, but, of a man rightfully convicted.
I haven’t seen the trial transcripts yet but I did get detailed summaries of the proceedings as they happened. Yes, circumstantial evidence is evidence especially when combined with hard evidence but I don’t think that is what happened here (or the first trial). All of the forensic evidence that I know of either shows that he didn’t do it or it was completely inconclusive to the point of being worthless. The defense tried a more scientific approach this time while the prosecution relied on the soap opera storytelling approach to describe how their marriage was failing and his stepson was such a good boy (not true at all) that the only possible conclusion was that it was a faked murder-suicide that only Jason could have possibly done himself with careful planning despite no hard evidence to support any of that. Unfortunately, the jury liked to hear a heart-wrenching storytelling from the victims’ family and friends much better than they liked to listen to forensics experts and law enforcement detectives that were on the scene.
Keep in mind that this is one of the very few cases that his Innocence Project can take on and they do not back convicted people that they have any doubt about. They are way too strapped for money and resources to take on any case that they believe they may not win and this one was a bad surprise for them. Fortunately, there are other strategies they can still pursue. It will take a long time but they have already promised not to give up.
Jason’s family and I grew up in a small town in Louisiana on the Louisiana side of the East Texas line but the culture of all of those small towns in the general area is the same. It is difficult to find any unbiased jurors because most of them have their mind made up already based on whatever social circles they inhabit especially for a well-known case like this that directly affected many people in the community. It is like playing Poker with a crooked deck of cards.
If they really wanted an unbiased look at the evidence, they would have to move to a much larger and distant venue like Dallas or Austin. His attorneys didn’t request that for some reason.
Here’s one point from Earl Snake-Hips Tucker’s cite that I find deserves some attention:
This suggests that the rifle had a grip safety. I’ve seen those on hand guns, but never on rifles. What kind of rifle (a .30-30, semi-auto, with grip safety) would that be?
Yes, that makes no sense. It was just a standard and common .30-30. They are just compact rifles originally designed to be used in heavy brush or carried for long distances because they are much smaller and lighter than standard rifles. The rifle in question belonged to his step-son unquestionably.
They are common deer hunting rifles where the ranges are relatively short and and the woods are dense. They are easy to maneuver because they are small. It is ludicrous to suggest that you can’t kill someone and then yourself with one. It is painlessly simple and doesn’t require any complications. Anyone that has one could give you a simple demonstration showing how anyone could do that with no problems.
I know a lot of people don’t understand the finer points about different types of rifles but I do because I used to restore them for my father who was a firearms dealer and owned a few similar models myself. I never liked .30-30’s that much because they aren’t good long range weapons but they are nearly ideal if you want to kill someone and then yourself at close range. They do a great job of killing at deer at less than 100 yards and they are ideal if you want a small rifle that you can use to kill someone and then yourself at point blank range.
Do you suppose that the typical judge in those parts is likely to be intelligent, honest, and unbiased (as compared to the typical jury)? Should he have opted for a non-jury trial instead? Should he do that next time?
I am not a lawyer but that is something I would strongly consider if I was defending him officially. He has had good luck with judges but not from a tiny pool of potential jurors. Then again they do have proven corruption at the DA level in Texas so you can never tell if you would get a bad judge as well.
If he gets off, he will be ripe for a wrongful imprisonment suit. It won’t be that much money in the overall scheme of things but it looks really bad for people that want to protect their jobs at all costs.
A jury trial is something that has to be affirmatively waived, and both the defendant and the State have a right to a jury trial. If the State does not waive, there will be a jury trial regardless of what the defendant wants.
The new conviction was a travesty of justice but there are some new developments. Dateline NBC has picked up his case and will present it on May 13th to a national audience at 10 pm Eastern/9 pm Central. I have no idea of what they will say but watch it if you are interested in how the the justice system can go badly wrong in the U.S. I am sure they will try to be even-handed but major networks don’t devote time and resources to convicted murderers without a reason.
Again, I am confident he is innocent and, by that, I mean completely innocent. There is no real evidence to suggest otherwise. I have a letter from Jason on my refrigerator door that is heartbreaking because it was written when he still had hope that the justice system would correct itself after a horrible mistake but that hasn’t happened yet. You may not want to believe it but the same thing could happen to you or a member of your family.
NBC is the network that falsified the transcript of George Zimmerman’s call to the NEN to make him look racist, right? And Dateline NBC is the show that rigged a crash test against GM, correct?
