ping
Question: was he actually exonerated or, as is much more common, was it just that enough new evidence was found to create reasonable doubt that would make a new trial unwinnable?
While philosophically in fave of the death penalty for some crimes, shit like this has convinced me that life in prison is often a better option.
Until law enforcement officials and prosecutors start going to prison for long periods of time for obstruction of justice and conspiring to violate the constitutional rights of accused persons, I would hesitate to sentence someone to death.
I think we’re on episode 4 or 5. I’m surprised you’re that deep in and thinking not-guilty so I’m really looking forward to watching more.
I highly recommend River on Netflix.
We drove by the Avery salvage yard once - pure evil coming from that place. Wouldn't let my husband stop the car.
The body language from Eugene Kusche makes my skin crawl.
I saw it and it was a kangaroo court on Steve. White man’s life mattered.
Just binge watched this doc and here are my observations:
1) the video was probably slanted toward the defense, but presented enough reasonable doubt that it’s difficult to see how there was a conviction for Steve or Branden.
2) I thank God I do not live in an small town. When everyone knows everyone else, it’s easy for good Ole boy syndrome to be used to convict someone of a crime they didn’t commit. It happened to Avery at his first trial and probably happened at the second one, too.
I have so many questions about this case after watching the whole documentary...the biggest issue for me is that every American should be given a fair trial and that clearly didn’t happen in this case, which taints the system for everyone!
-Time frame issues jump out all over the place - the brother-in-law and the other nephew (Bobby) who basically gave each other alibis but said the Rav4 driven by Theresa was gone by 2:45 are completely contradicted by the school bus driver who said she saw a woman taking pictures when she dropped off kids around 3:30-3:40. Was Brenden on that bus? Did anyone on his defense team ask what time he got home from school?
- Is it possible that someone else in the family (Bobby?) was involved and told Brenden some of the stuff he recounted but told him to say Steven did it? He is so incredibly confused and easily led that nothing he says should have been admissible.
- What about the deleted voice mails from her phone? Her brother was very bizarre - even in the very first press conference about her disappearance he seemed to act as if he knew she was dead. What about the roommate and the ex-boyfriend? Sounds like no one even interviewed them...and the cousin who found the Rav4 was not believable at all. Wish the defense attorneys would have pushed her harder on why she went to that specific area, especially in light of the time sheet showing Lenk was on scene hours before he admitted it.
- The phone call from Officer Coburn to the dispatcher regarding the license plate days before the car was ever found was another really odd thing. I would have expected a lot more questions regarding that whole conversation.
- Finally, the jury count was puzzling. How did it go from seven people leaning not guilty to a unanimous conviction? Were the other jurors, besides the one who was excused, ever interviewed?
I hate to think that police and prosecutors could do the things that this case implies but it does happen(read It Is Not About the Truth regarding the Duke Lacrosse rape case)...if they thought Steven was guilty, or if they were just worried about the pending lawsuit, they might have felt justified in doing whatever it took to ensure a conviction.