Posted on 06/30/2006 6:47:31 AM PDT by lunarbicep
The confession of a man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford isn't admissible in court, but the discovery of her body can be used as evidence, a judge ruled today.
John Evander Couey, a 47-year-old convicted sex offender, gave the confession to detectives, but also told them that he wanted to consult a lawyer. He wasn't given the opportunity to do so.
Jessica Marie Lunsford was found kneeling and clutching a stuffed animal, hands tied with speaker wire and fingers poking through the garbage bags in which she was buried alive in March 2005. Two days earlier, Couey told detectives he kidnapped, raped and killed the 9-year-old girl.
no.freakin.way O'Reilly is going to have a stroke. I may well join him.
Bush's fault, no doubt. Set this fine gentleman free at once! Make him featured speaker at the next ACLU banquet!
Cops made a real mess in this one.
this guy is a scumbag of the highest degree. It is the police and detectives who screwed this one up, not the judge. Flame me if you want, but a coupla detectives should lose their jobs, for their actions may very well help aquit an admitted murdered.
First of all - this guy should be strung up.
Second of all - the premise of having an attorney present is something all law enforcement should be aware of. If some scumbag - and this guy is certainly a scumbag - is asking for a lawyer, halt the freakin' questioning and get him a lawyer, because otherwise it's going to be more difficult to prove his guilt now that the confession gets tossed out.
Let's hope the DNA evidance makes his confession unnessessary.
Prayers for the poor girl.
Take the guy out to a public place in the Florida panhandle and announce where he will be, then release him. I'm certain he will find quick justice.
Oh my God ! I can't begin to imagine what she went through, I hope God took her before she suffered too much.
Let's just save the expense and put the ****er in General Population with a Blue Outfit saying on the front: "I assulted and murdered a 9-year-old-girl."
damn
It is unfortunate that his confession is going to be thrown out. But if they questioned him and he had requested his lawyer, it was bound to happen. Nonethless, I believe that he is going to be convicted and given the death sentence.
This is the result of a Warren-era SCOTUS. There is nothing in the Constitution that requires the suppression of evidence if an accused confesses or makes a damning admission after he has said he wants an attorney but before he can speak with one. SCOTUS made this remedy up whole cloth, just some more judicial legislating beyond their authority.
There is something wrong with our laws and with this judge. The animal confessed after he was given his Miranda warning. He should no longer be breathing (the animal, that is). The judge should be disbarred.
Perhaps they should just free him now, you have a huge media event and call the whole thing off and let him go on the court house steps.
And let him go home....
(I'm kidding of course, but at this rate they might as well.)
This "rule" is the result of Escobedo and Miranda decisions in the sixties. You know, there is NOTHING about that decade that is worth keeping.
What about the two? women? living in the same TRAILER that said they didn't know anything about it...even tho the child was IN the trailer???
It would have been a lot easier if he had been shot while resisting arrest. That should happen also to those terrorist rather than being shipped to Gitmo. Save the ACLU a lot of trouble. Ha!
LOL - Howard the Duck (Dean) wants to take us back to the sixties!
Here in Georgia, "home" is probably near a school-bus stop. A Clinton-appointed federal judge has tossed out our new state law barring sex offenders from living near places where kids congregate. Here, at least, sex offenders are a protected class.
I think that with the discovery of the body, and the "willing" testimony of the people in the trailer, this guy is still going to fry.
I get all my legal training off the TV, so take my opinion for what it is worth...
If the police thought the girl was still alive, pehaps finding the girl quickly was their first priority. If this is the case, one can understand how their decision to continue to question the murderer even after he requested a lawyer came about.
The prosecution caught a break because the court is going to allow physical evidence form the girl's body to be used at the trial. I am certain the murderer's lawyer argued that this should be considered "fruit of the poisonous tree" and excluded as well. Hopefully the physical evidence will be enough to convict this man even without the confession.
"Cops made a real mess in this one."
Agreed, in the sense that the perp should suffered a painful and seriously fatal accident on the way to the police station.
Ya know, he might actually get to feel a little justice if he were released on the streets. Words to describe this piece of filth just escape me.
No flame from me Joe. While the detectives should be fired, the confession should be admitted.
The Miranda ruling was IMO seriously flawed from the get go. It is the legal version of 2 wrongs making a right and that right is in favor of the accused.
I believe if any search warrants were issued based upon the confession, then any evidence obtained could also be challenged.
Make the penalty for the government's agents stiff enough to discourage anyone from violating the accused's rights but don't stick the judicial head in the sand and make like evidence didn't exist.
I would not be surprised at all if this was the ultimate result of the Hamdan case. And I'm OK with that...
You are correct on all counts.....but, the miranda crap has to change, either by legislation, or by the supremes....we need 1 more justice on the high court.....
Which means the case has a potent appellate issue built into it from the beginning.
There is no shortage of appellate court judges willing to gut such a case on "fruit of the poisonous tree" grounds. This miscreant could someday be as free as OJ.
It was an absurd and capricious law, doing one thing while pretending not to. If you want to keep pedophiles in prison forever, fine. If you want to execute them, fine. But pretty much anywhere there are people, there is a school bus stop within a thousand feet, and further, the bus stops move from year to year.
I don't think the state will have any difficulty getting a conviction,but it irks me when LE pulls bonehead stunts like this.Cooey's room mates were very likely accesories to the crime,and they simply walked,no charges,nothing.
Even if you can get past the horrible Miranda decision, this guy did have the right to remain silent, and was told this. He apparently chose not to remain silent.
Do we have to change the Miranda statement now? Should cops now tell the people you arrest, "You are under arrest. Feel free to say whatever you want or do whatever you want. It can't be used against you in a court of law."
SP correction-Couey
At the time I think the cops thought she might still be alive. Not sure of the timeline on this case.
I would have to go back too and catch up on the details. That sounds correct though.
Throw the confession out. Then throw Lundsford out...a ten story window. Then close the window and close the case.
If the liberal Clymers who let this scum out on the streets see that it leads to their execution, maybe they'll finally see the wisdom of locking them up forever.
I heard a former soldier in Iraq comfirm this yesterday. He said he would not subject his men to danger to capture these people only to have them go to a US court and freed.
After he is tried and convicted I am sure this will be the basis for appeal. The appelate courts are even more liberal than the trial courts.
Nope, not fine at all. Such measures would be tossed out by the federal courts before the ink on the legislation was dry. Georgia's law was really aimed at pushing sex offenders out of the state altogether by making it nearly impossible for them to live anywhere around kids. Why? This case is a good example of why.
But sex offenders are a protected class. Seriously, if this guy gets off, he could be the featured speaker at the next ACLU banquet.
This decision makes me sick! I could care less how the defense lawyers try to spin the justification of it...
I was trying to create a "new" post on the "elections" topic and put this political ad there, but I am new to Free-Republic and wasn't sure how to do it...
But please check this out... The ad rocks and if we could get our fellow Republicans to create ad's like this one, the November elections would be a LOCK!!!
http://www.vernonrobinson.com/twilightzone.shtml
How her dad has gone around the country trying so hard to get Jessica's law passed in every state.
Even the ba$tard who kidnapped and killed Carly Bruscia pled not guilty. We saw him on the video taking the little girl against her will.
Yes there is something wrong here and it begins and ends with defense attorneys for the most part.
It depends on the judge and the jurisdiction. Some hold if the perp expresses an interest in a lawyer but keeps on talking, the statements are fair game. Other hold that the police should immediately cease the interview, essentially telling him not to say another word. The story does not elaborate on the nature of the request. It could have been anything from, "I want a lawyer now!" to "Maybe I should have an attorney, but here goes!" It's just another sad case of the gun being loaded against the prosecution, and that gun has a don't-breathe-on-it hair trigger. BTW, I love your tagline, Grid. From your keyboard to God's ears.
Now, if this guy was dragged out of his house, hung from a tree, with a sign nailed to his privates labeling him what he is, and nobody in the neighborhood saw anything, then I do believe THAT would send a message. Unfortunately, it is going to take complete disgust on the part of society as a whole, without exceptions, for this scenario to play out. I just cannot see some damn lib as being able to go along with this.............
Whoever was involved in this fiasco should lose their jobs. There should be laws to prosecute those who cause these problems. O'Reilly can huff and puff all he wants as long as he blames the right people. He will probably blame the judge though.
This is evil in all its glory. Doesn't matter if the cops screwed up. This judge knows right from wrong...when did common sense fall away?
There is no other choice but the death penalty. If anyone on this board has a daughter, you understand my post.
We can't even CONVICT & PUNISH someone who CONFESSES to the crime? We are friggin doomed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.