Posted on 05/02/2009 9:14:25 AM PDT by Born Conservative
POTTSVILLE — Two Shenandoah teenagers were acquitted late Friday night of killing illegal Mexican immigrant Luis Ramirez Zavala.
Brandon J. Piekarsky, 17, of Shenandoah Heights, and Derrick M. Donchak, 19, of Shenandoah, were convicted of simple assault.
The Schuylkill County jury also convicted Donchak on three counts of corruption of minors and three counts of furnishing alcohol to minors.
The defendants hugged each other after the verdicts were read, and friends and family members clapped.
Jurors deliberated for nearly eight hours before reaching their verdict around 10:45 p.m., Friday.
The all-white jury of six men and six women began deliberating about 3 p.m.
The beating occurred about 11:30 p.m. July 12 on West Lloyd Street in Shenandoah, Prosecutors said. Ramirez died two days later at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
Jurors returned to the courtroom around 4:10 p.m. asking Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin to define three of the charges: ethnic intimidation, corruption of minors and recklessly endangering another person. Baldwin took about 10 minutes to do so and returned the jury to the deliberation room.
Baldwin, who had presided over the five-day trial, began instructing the jury at 1:10 p.m. following a lunch recess.
“He was beaten badly. His skull was fractured in two spots,” Assistant District Attorney Robert P. Frantz said in his closing argument Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at citizensvoice.com ...
What’s the real poop on this? I know you have an inside scoop.
It looks to me as if the jury didn’t buy into the “hate crime” law.
It perhaps was not a hate crime, but who kicks a man in the head when they are down. That’s serious.
Ramirez also was not entirely innocent, continuing to fight voluntarily when the boys started to walk away, according to Fanelli.
The other term for the boys actions could be 'self defense'.
Who has more machismo? A 25 year old Mexican with a 15 year old girl friend or a group of football players that have been drinking?
I doubt if the 15 year old would have thought any less of him if he hadn't fought them.
Since Ramirez died the "friend" with the gun, part of the gang?, would be tried for his murder.
Apparantly the law in Pennsylvania is not sufficiently evolved to properly target the problem.
That is not the end of the story. Leftists will go federal now. Double jeopardy is against the constitution.
The only thing that interests the law in this case is the race of the principals.
That and assualt. Unless clearly defending yourself if you get in a fight and win (harm the opponent), you up for at least assualt. In this case, the Left tried to use the race of the victors in the fight against them in a witch hunt to jack up charges. It did not work on the jury who did not see the one who lost the fight as an innocent victim in the fight.
Yep, the prosecution went for the drama queen hate crime charge and lost. If they had charged them for killing the guy, they may have been successful.
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