Va. Judge Drops Murder Charges Vs. Sniper

[DelawareValleyDem]

A judge threw out capital-murder charges Friday against sniper John Allen Muhammad in the slaying of an FBI analyst in a Home Depot parking lot, saying prosecutors waited too long to bring him to trial.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041001/ap_on_re_us/sniper_shootings

[neuvocat]

1. ...what...

???

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. The Sixth Amendment...

fair and speedy trial before a jury of one's peers...I suppose one could make a case that a gap of two years isn't exactly "speedy", and Muhammad is already facing a death sentence from a prior conviction, so a second trial is moot, anyway. Not like they can kill him twice, or imprison him for life after he's executed, after all.

[Kagemusha]

3. It looks like they delayed his formal arrest to evade the law

on speedy trial.

The judge sided with the defense on this...

[Radius]

4. He is a dead man walking, regardless.(nt)

[davidinalameda]

5. Wanted--Assistant DA that can count

heads are gonna roll in that office

[AP]

7. Maybe not. Why waste state money trying a (soon-to-be) dead man?

And who wants to bet that this prosecutors office is under-funded and under-staffed?

This way they shift the blame for not prosecuting him on to a "liberal" judge.

They're off the hook.

The prosecutors responsible for this case might have just earned themselves a promotion.

[teryang]

6. This kind of lapse in a high profile murder case

...is no mistake. I'm sure that the government doesn't want the subpoena power brought to examine what the FBI victim was doing at the office at the time.

[WMliberal]

8. a virginia judge refusing a chance to try a black man?

and not even bending the rules to get it done? Maybe this state is a little less backward than I thought.

[w4rma]

9. Wierd. Nonetheless, the guy is going to get the same punishment with or

without this particular trial.

[Eloriel]

10. Ouch! n/t

[shawn703]

11. Couldn't this logic be used on Gitmo detainees? n/t