woah! Mumia!

[Nathan Newman]

The big issue here is mitigating circumstances that juries must be asked to
considered.  When constitutionally applied, I can't think of any
non-premeditated murders or murders not adjunct to a brutal separate crime
that have led to a death sentence.  Even though a cop is involved, since
Mumia is not accused of being involved in any crime at the time of the
alleged murder, that brings in all sorts of issues of mitigating
circumstances as to why Faulkner's death occurred.  The fact that the cop was
apparently wailing on Mumia's brother would bring up all sorts of "heat of
passion" mitigating issues.

Throw in just the doubts as to what actually occurred at the scene of the
crime, which while not directly considered by any jury as to innocence, will
still be introduced by the defense (if it comes to that) in challenging
claims of the prosecution that there were no mitigating circumstances.

-- Nathan Newman

----- Original Message -----
From: "virgil tibbs" <sheik_of_encino at yahoo.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 11:21 AM
Subject: RE: woah! Mumia!

Who does the death sentencing?  I assume it will be a
jury.  Then, I would expect Mumia to file for a change
in venue saying he could not get a fair jury, UNLESS
the pool is likely to bring in a lot of
African-Americans. The other issue is: how do
Pennsylvania state court judges get to the bench?  I
would not hold my breath that you will get evenhanded
rulings from the bench.  Plus, the victim impact
statement will be very powerful.  The widow has been
speaking about this case for years; she knows all of
the "facts;"  she will be a very powerful presence in
the court.  Puls, that court will be wall to wall
blue.

--- Justin Schwartz <jkschw at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >From what I could see, this meant he gets a new
> >sentencing hearing, at which time he could still
> >get the death penalty.  So under the pretext of
> >some improved procedure, the same punishment
> >could be carried out.  Am I wrong?  -- mbs
> >
> >
>
> No, you are correct. But if the procedure is
> improved, that's not wholly a
> pretext. jks
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
> Join the world's largest e-mail service with MSN
> Hotmail.
> http://www.hotmail.com
>

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of
your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com
or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com