« Clause 28 | Main | I'm waiting on the Good Twin »

October 11, 2002

Hesitation

I'm not sure how to react to this. From The New York Times:

Likely U-Turn by Prosecutors in 1989 Attack

A sweeping re-investigation of the 1989 Central Park jogger attack, including new DNA tests and admissions from a murderer never suspected in the crime, has persuaded senior prosecutors and detectives in Manhattan that the convictions of five Harlem teenagers cannot stand, according to three officials involved in the inquiries.

In an interview yesterday, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, stressed that he had not yet made up his mind about the case but said that if the claims of the murderer, Matias Reyes, continued to hold up, he would go along with a request by defense lawyers to vacate the convictions. The jogger, a 28-year-old investment banker, was beaten, raped and left for dead in the park on a night when other runners and bicyclists were being attacked and robbed by bands of youths.

"We always knew there was someone else out there, but I didn't expect this," Mr. Morgenthau said. "If the facts require us to consent, we're going to do that. We won't hesitate."

Of course they won't. Didn't fucking hesitate during the original prosecution, after all.

How anyone could interpret this as showing that "the system works" is a mystery to me. This must be a lack of imagination on my part.

Right, sorry, NYT requires registration. There's a series of articles at Eyewitness 7Online, the local ABC affiliate's site.

They may have been innocent. That is the fear one juror in the trial of three teenagers convicted of brutally attacking and raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989 now has according to a published report.

Harold Brueland told the Daily News, "It's beginning to look like words were put in their mouths. If it turns out that they (the prosecutors) were manipulating us to convict kids with confessions that were obtained fraudulently, it's terrible. I'll feel awful."

Not sure how to react to that either. I'd look for statements made by jurors at the time of the trial, but kind'a doubt they'd improve my mood.

On the other hand, they'd probably be full of certainty. Or passionate intensity. Or something.

Posted by Aaron at October 11, 2002 11:33 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.uppity-negro.com/cgi-uppity-negro/mt-tb.cgi/594

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Hesitation:

Comments

Post a comment