It was used at trial to support the theory that it was a fight gone bad instead of a racially motivated crime.
OK, I followed the trial religiously, having been given permission by my boss to keep the local newspaper reporter’s blog on the monitor during the workday. I live in Schuylkill County.
Please know that Schuylkill County residents were, in fact, outraged by this crime, and by the verdict. Those boys got off because the prosecution failed. The jury did what the law required them to do. The investigation was heinously flawed, the prosecution was weak.
Even after the trial, a number of jurors spoke publicly about the fact that they could not convict on the more serious charges simply because actual evidence was not presented to warrant a guilty verdict on those charges. Yes, even the jury was outraged that they were not legally able to convict on something more serious.
A life was ended. The perpetrators will not be punished for ending a life. It is sad. But let’s not blame the jury, or the people of this area. There is no more or no less racism here than there is in any other state, county or municipality. Yes, of course there were the old bigots publicly congratulating the perps after the verdict. But more than that, were those of us deeply saddened that “our own” could be capable of this hideous crime.
I truly hope I’m doing a better job with my sons.
Thank you. Having been a juror I am tired of ignorant loudmouths always blaming bad outcomes on the Jury. The Jury too often has no real choice.
Yeah, I guess Gladys Limon, the MALDEF attorney who was present at the trail thus heard all the evidence presented, is yet another “ignorant moron” like Rendell:
– my highlights.
So yeah, keep telling yourselves that all fault lies with the prosecution and none of those unjustly maligned jurors had the slightest bit of ethnic bias in them.
Me? I’ll gladly stand besides Limon and the rest of the “ignorant morons” who see this whole thing for what it is: a travesty of justice aided and abetted by blatant xenophobia.
DrDeth, no doubt you would have been a perfect fit in that panel – what with your added experience and all, I doubt those kids would have spent a day in jail.
RedFury, you are totally unjusitified in your attack on DrDeth. Further, you cannot seriously believe that quoting someone from MALDEF on the issue offers anything in the way of validity to the notion that the jury did its job properly. MALDEF would be happy with nothing short of a conviction on the most penal charges, I’m sure. MALDEF is not a dispassionate observer where Mexican-Americans are concerned, because it’s an advocacy group for these people. They are as objective on such issues as, oh, say, Philadelphia sports fans are.
As I have already pointed out: if you cannot point to evidence that either the jurors or the police did something to prevent successul prosecution on the muder charges based upon motives of an anti-Mexican nature, all that you can say is that the result fails to provide justice; you cannot assert that the result of the trial is the result of bias. Suspect that it is? Sure. But know that it is? No.
OK, so Rendell is a political animal and MALDEF is an advocacy group – so we dismiss their conclusions upon hearing the facts because of that*. The only objective one we can all agree on is that the jury acted flawlessly despite all we’ve read about the case, including a post about conditions on the ground from a (backtracking) resident there at the time of crime. That’s all biased bullshit as well.
Riiight.
*What’s that fallacy about attacking the source again?