Defense says testimony from experts will show Yeardley Love did not die from blunt force trauma but

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's been in the local jail, which is not too bad in Cville. Wait til he gets to the state pen... then Georgie is going to meet some serious dudes who would LOVE to have a preppy boyfriend. That's when Georgie is going to cry. Money isn't going to get him out of this one.

I'm sorry, but no one deserves to be raped, no matter what they did. This is clearly a kid who did a horrible thing, but glee at him getting raped in prison is ugly.

And for those whose answer to this would be that they have no sympathy for inmates, consider the implications for the community when we turn a blind eye to, let alone encourage, prison assaults and sexual predation. Most prisoners are released at some point; even if you don't think rehabilitation is possible, do you really want to encourage a system that creates *more dangerous* ex-cons?

This is a subject for another thread but the American Penal system is not based or rehabilitation but purely punative. Of course, homosexual rape is terrible and one cannot imagine how terrorized a new inmate must be, male or female. As I said, a whole other thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me out on this one. Huguely told the police that he kicked in the door and beat her and she dies. Does it matter if a heart condition or a beating caused her death? Isn't it still a death in the commission of a felony?

If it didn't cause her death, then not likely to be first degree murder, but a lesser conviction of involuntary manslaughter...

I think they are going for felony murder because he stole her laptop and if it was his intent to steal it, I think he will be guilty of felony murder??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Help me out on this one. Huguely told the police that he kicked in the door and beat her and she dies. Does it matter if a heart condition or a beating caused her death? Isn't it still a death in the commission of a felony?

If it didn't cause her death, then not likely to be first degree murder, but a lesser conviction of involuntary manslaughter...

Now I need help figuring the charges out. Aren't first-degree murder and felony murder mutually exclusive? I mean, first-degree is when you set out to kill someone intentionally. Felony murder is when, say, a robbery

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+18.2-32

This is the poster who was asking about murder charges from a death during the commission of a felony. It looks like the felony murder charge is that charge. Felony murder and 1st degree murder seem to have the same punishment in Virginia, according to the VA code link.

I need a lawyer to help me out on this point. I think that the jury cannot consider charges that the defendant hasn't already been indicted on. Is that correct? Does that mean that 2nd degree murder is not on the table here and the jury can convict or acquit him of either murder charge, but not a different one?

From the statute you quoted it looks like 2nd may be considered "a lesser included offense".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Before you play the racist card, remember that the legal system allows the rich (black or white) to pay for a better defense.
Most any poor guy will be convicted before any rich guy, black or white.
See, e.g., People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson.

The problem was prosecutorial mistakes and a jury who was looking to get even, racially that is. It's a freakin joke to say he had a jury of his peers decide his case. He lived in Brentwood, not in the 'hood. His people were from that neighborhood, those who had a lot of money, power and connections. And they would have reamed his ass to the slammer for life.

[Anonymous]

I posted about why we don't pay attention to the same type of story when the accused and victim are black b/c it doesn't happen regularly in this area.

I'm not "playing the race card" in anyway. I'm just pointing out that this story seems to be getting a lot of attention b/c the people are more beautiful/photogenic/upper class. I'm just making the point that the same kind of violence happens to people right here, but it doesn't seem to grab our attention b/c we don't relate to the local victims.

The reason OJ got attention was that he was RICH/famous and his victim was beautiful and upper economic class. Media and people as a whole seem to take more notice when they are from the same class as the victim and/or suspect. But, really, this kind of thing happens far too frequently in our own little city... we just don't read those stories.

[Anonymous]

Typo --- I meant to say in the first sentence that it DOES happen regularly in this area.