Text 6991, 82 rader
Skriven 2008-07-19 14:19:18 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
   Kommentar till text 6984 av Bob Klahn (1:124/311)
Ärende: The Black Experience
============================
Hi BOb,

Bob Klahn wrote in a message to Richard Webb:

 RW> Ah but remember the murders of the two girls in Ada
 RW> Oklahoma a few years ago? The would-be pro baseball player
 RW> was charged and convicted. sOme videotaping going on in
 RW> that case.  WIlliams, the accused fomer minor leaguer was
 RW> eventually exonerated and freed from his death row
 RW> sentence. WAs reading a book on that one recently.

BK>  I went to the Innocence project website recently. Lots of that 
BK> going on.

Yep, lots of "rush to judgment" type things going on in those cases. I remember
an article I read which talked about a journalism professor who's very involved
with the innocence project.  HIs contention, eyewitness testimony is the most
unreliable testimony many times. One of his first exercises for his students
goes something like this:

He's lecturing the class on some arcane point, just another day, another dollar
there in ye old classroom. suddenly by prearrangement a  person comes into the
room, tackles him, steals his wallet and runs away. sUddenly prof tells
everyone this is an exercise, don't become alarmed, just immediately write down
what you saw, describe the person. From what the prof says descriptions are all
over the map.

 RW> furhman used the wrong argument for entering the sImpson
 RW> property, opening the door for the defense. Had he used the
 RW> arguments you state above the defense wouldn't have been
 RW> able to widen the gap, and argue all over the place
 RW> regarding chain of custody issues.  IT's always the little
 RW> details that reach out to bite you hardest. <snip again>

BK>  The prosecution should have been able to close that one. Or at 
BK> least argue that even if you ignore Furhman's testimony you  still
BK> have more than enough to convict.

SHould have, but you must remember you've got supposedly twelve average folks
seated in that jury box. YOu attack a couple of major underpinnings of the
prosecution's case, you're able to then knock the rest of them out. Remember
the star trek episode whre the Captain told the boss robot that everything this
fellow told it was a lie, and the guy then told boss robot he was lying now.
easy to confuse, easy to twist the heads around.

AFter awhile these good average folks on that jury are tired of the back and
forth. THey just want to resume their normal lives.  All these sidebars, the
isolation from family friends and coworkers, it all gets to you. tHe mistakes
pile up, the dominoes fall, the jury says "reasonable doubt" and it's over. IT
could almost be argued for multiple cases of Stockholm syndrome.  I"m sure
you're familiar with that one.

BK>  The hat... trying on the glove... the unrebuted DNA testimony... 

Yep, make a circus out of the whole thing, and by that point the defense has
shown some mistakes to the jury that were made by the prosecution and the
enforcers of the law. AFter awhile "we just want to go home" is the driving
factor.  AT first JOhny cochrane is the guy who's keeping us here much too long
with all these objections, sidebars, etc. THen JOhny's that reasonable guy
who's saying "this could be you" and they roll over.

BK>> cross contaminate the samples. The weakness in that arguement is  at
BK>> least the preceeding sample had to be OJ's blood for the  succeeding
BK>> sample to test out as OJ's blood. Which still leaves  OJ's blood at
BK>> the scene of the crime.

 RW> Yes that it was, and from the get-go, thanks to furhman
 RW> using the wrong argument for entering the accused's
 RW> property in the first place, you open the door for the
 RW> defense. AGain why often when just being questioned you're
 RW> presented with your Miranda rights before the questions
 RW> begin. the I's must be dotted and T's crossed.

BK>  Then, when screwup follows screwup, they find themselves digging 
BK> themselves out from a deep hole.

And by then you've turned a jury around.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Radio REscue net operations BBS       (1:116/901)