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Guandique Trial Postponed, New charges to come!
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gozgals



Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 2892
Location: A Place Called Vertigo

PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good pt. about Patsy's ransom note. Had a post here but it went off line
again.


Goz
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 7:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hate losing posts, goz. I used to highlight and CTL-C to save in case post didn't take, but it's been a few years since I had that problem.

What I really like is highlighting to save and not pressing CTL-C just so and wiping out my own post trying to save it.

I also love the sites where your post doesn't take and you click on Back and it's no longer there. That's just too sweet for words.

Thanks for the point about Patsy's note. I do think that's a good comparison to this "confession letter".

rd
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gozgals



Joined: 28 Jul 2005
Posts: 2892
Location: A Place Called Vertigo

PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rd

quote] "also love the sites where your post doesn't take and you click on Back and it's no longer there. That's just too sweet for words. "
[/quote]

That is one of my favorites too Rd. :)

Good day and thanks.

Goz
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sigsky



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 209
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:47 am    Post subject: Man accused in Chandra Levy murder was avid correspondent Reply with quote

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/02/98498/man-accused-in-chandra-levy-murder.html

Funny, I was thinking Guandique was borderline illiterate. But it is not uncommon for inmates to get educated in prison. It is troubling that the prosecution is keeping so much evidence out of sight of the defense.
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, it is troubling, sigsky. Thanks for the heads up. I'll take a look tonight at this latest.

rd
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sigsky



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 209
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 10:00 pm    Post subject: Levy suspect lawyers want names of summoned jurors Reply with quote

http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1890695&nid=596

OK, I guess this should have been expected. I suppose we should have a fair number of illegals on the jury. I think the defense needs to do better than this, albeit I'm not knowing much details.

Surely that last paragraph is referring to prosecutors, not defense lawyers.
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sigsky



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 209
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 8:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After giving this more thought, I have decided the statement is correct and the story is saying that although the defense believes that hispanics are under-represented in the jury pool, that there was no effort made to purposely achieve this. Still I think the story could be better written. Where are you Michael Doyle?
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, I don't think so, sigsky. The statement:

Guandique's lawyers say there is no evidence of efforts made to increase Hispanic jury participation.

is saying the defense lawyers are not seeing an effort made by the Federal court holding this trial to make "affirmative action" efforts to deliberately force some percentage of the jury pool to be Latino.

The only action that can achieve this is to refer to race data that might be asked for somewhere wherever they draw these names from, I assume from DC voter registration lists. Isn't that where jury pools normally pulled from, that or perhaps taxpayer lists in cities that have a local tax maybe?

First of all, I don't know that race is asked for in voter registration. If it is, it shouldn't be.

Where race is asked for (such as on drivers licenses?) is Latino a separate indication from Caucasian or "white"? I took a look at my Florida drivers license and there is no indication of race printed on it. But I think I recall somewhere in the past that race was on one of drivers license from some other state.

In any event, this obviously isn't going to fly anywhere. There are occasional articles of all white juries convicting a black person, one fairly recently, and it happens. Of course this used to be routine in the South so it's something we should never forget.

Nevertheless, with quota juries, race, religion, gender, ethnic, income, there's no end to what quotas could be demanded for each trial. That isn't going to happen, but of course lawyer strategies of trying to shape the jury are well known.

I never know where the line is for defense challenges to go from "required to keep from being claimed that an inadequate defense was presented" to "defense lawyers make unreasonable challenges".

In other words, even if unreasonable and everyone should know it will go nowhere, are they obliged to argue it vigorously everytime anyway to prevent successful appeals based on inadequate defense?

The judge is correct, basically saying that there are reasons that a proportionate share of Latinos wouldn't be found representative in a jury pool for reasons such as a sizeable number having limited English language capabilities.

Interestingly, just like the defendant.

rd
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A lot of other Guandique material, though, has already been conveyed to the defense team. Prosecutors, for instance, provided correspondence with the consular general of El Salvador as well as documents from Living Cross Ministries and the Crossroad Bible Institute, the latter of which serves prison inmates.

I am at a complete loss on this, sigsky. Federal prosecutors list at least 70 letters allegedly written by Guandique, but only provide the defense lawyers letters with El Salvador embassy (where's he from) and "documents" exchanged with two prison ministries.

The listing of the evidence was provided to the court earlier this year, the trial is allegedly in October, and in August the defense hasn't been provided with letters?

This follows the US prosecutors saying they wouldn't be identifying prison inmates who may testify and thus not allowing "discovery", as far as I can tell from that. The one time they did provide access the inmate refused to answer questions and claimed Guandique threatened his life in a letter. Nothing disclosed about the "handwriting tests" Guandique took and defense asked for on the inmate.

Please tell me if the DC prosecutors have 70 letters they think is from Guandique why they need a handwriting test? Are they all typed? I doubt it.

Are they all consistent? We don't know, they refuse to show them. Are they consistent with the "death threat" letter, or the "confession" letter? Who knows, they won't show them?

This is weird stuff. I get the feeling the DC people, prosecutors and police who've been scamming this thing all along, are still trying to pull their bluff out of the fire by adding layer after layer of more lies.

They after all feel entitled to lie all they want. I don't know at what point it's supposed to be the truth, if ever, but apparently only a jury will be able to separate the wheat from the chaff in what the prosecutors are claiming.

Maybe they think if the bluff doesn't work on Guandique it might work on the jury?

rd
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sigsky



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 209
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very astute reply rd. I think you are right and I am offended that anyone would suggest that the demographics of a potential jury pool should be affected by the ethnicity, sex, religion of the defendant. I would agree that the pool should reasonably represent the overall mix of the population from which the pool is chosen. At the same time I suppose this approach is part of the defense "doing their job".
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
Posts: 9273
Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought it was getting a little too quiet out there, and sure enough, there was a hearing last Friday with excellent news coverage:

Prosecutors, defense lawyers battle over jury pool in Chandra Levy case
By MICHAEL DOYLE
McClatchy Newspapers
August 21, 2010

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/20/2163578/prosecutors-defense-lawyers-battle.html


Defense team for man held in Chandra Levy killing can't see jury pool names
By Keith L. Alexander
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 21, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082005352.html


Judge rejects Levy suspect request for juror names
By KATHLEEN MILLER Associated Press Writer
August 21, 2010

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15842347


My reaction is that Judge Gerald Fisher is remarkably well reasoned. To the defense request that potential juror summons also be in Spanish:

"It seems a little bit counterintuitive to send out materials in Spanish to attract people who are supposed to be proficient in English."

Yes, it is. The reporting is that the defense was dealt a blow, but I doubt it. They've made their point, and there is much more jury shaping to come.

In any event, I like the judge's comments so far. Check the articles out. there are several interesting comments from him at this hearing.

rd
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jane



Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 3225

PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 5:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi rd. I was thinking the judge is a bit of a clown: "....they discussed a question about whether jurors perceived members of gangs to be violent. Fisher said that just because a person was in a gang didn't mean that gang was involved in violent activity. He cited the character Spanky from the "Our Gang" series from the 1930s. ...." Washington Post
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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Location: Jacksonville, FL

PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I prefer to think of it as "open-minded", jane. :)

Perhaps he's trying to save the prosecution from making complete fools of themselves, or even worse fools than they have already. They go on and on about Gaundique being an MS-13 or whatever gang member and his tattoos, even saying in response to the judge that it is assured that if a person is a member of a gang that they are violent, pinning much of their case on that association. It runs rampant through everything they have said and done, including their descriptions of a gang attack on Chandra.

And yet we will be able to clearly show that Guandique had no known association with a gang when he assaulted two women two and six weeks later after Chandra disappeared, and fled from a third out of her apartment only six days after, had no visible tattoos as recorded on the arrest report six days after and none will be noted on the arrest report six weeks after, and was a solitary attacker in all three assaults.

Carrying on about a gang association that never was until prison is bad enough, but the defense needs to show how foolish it is for the prosecution to claim that Chandra was jogging in Rock Creek Park, or anywhere for that matter, before moving on to other aspects of the foolish claims behind the charges.

rd
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sigsky



Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 209
Location: South Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:11 pm    Post subject: Susan Levy asks to attend trial of daughter's accused killer Reply with quote

My reaction was "why would she need permission?" but its simple if you read the article, she may be called as a witness. Interesting dilemma.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/03/1807252/susan-levy-asks-to-attend-trial.html
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rd



Joined: 13 Sep 2002
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah, interesting, sigsky. The lawyer for Susan Levy, Jani Tillery, in the legal filing says that under law the family are victims also, which of course is true. Yet as one of the few sources of talking to Chandra in the days prior to her disappearing, she would certainly be likely to be called to testify, and normally would be sequestered out of the courtroom as a potential witness.

I would think this should be well worn precedent, as it is a common situation and justice would not be served by barring a mother from her daughter's murder trial because she can be helpful in testifying to her last communications with her daughter.

So I am thinking this should be standard procedure to file for an exemption to attend the trail, or ought to be.

From this we get the most recent reporting from Michael Doyle on the status of the trial, said to be set to start October 4.

No word on whether Guandique's lawyers Santha Sonenberg and Maria Hawilo ever received the 70 some letters the prosecution said they have from Guandique or whether they were ever able to question the "cellmate confession" prisoners who the government is basing their case on.

No word means no legal filings or hearings, so they were provided the information?

Don't know, this is my first and last trial watch unless they try someone else for Chandra's murder. My guess is they never will, they'll consider the case closed regardless of the verdict. The alternatives are what they've avoided all along.

rd
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