Posted on 10/28/2005 10:09:54 AM PDT by SmithL
MARYVILLE — Kimberly Cunningham, the 33-year-old South Knoxville woman who shot to death a man she believes raped her daughter twice when the child was 10, was convicted today of voluntary manslaughter in the man's death.
The verdict was returned about 10 a.m. by the seven-woman, five-man jury after five hours of deliberation Thursday and one hour today.
Cunningham had been on trial on a charge of second-degree murder, but the jury acquitted her of that and found her guilty of the lesser charge. She had already been tried once in the death of Coy Hundley.
In that trial last April, she was acquitted of first-degree murder, and the jury deadlocked on all lesser charges.
Cunningham will be sentenced on Dec. 19 by Judge D. Kelly Thomas in Blount County Circuit Court.
Hopefully she will et a slap on the wrist. If it turns out that someone else committed the rapes she can kill them too.
>>An admittedly troubled teenager accused a man of molesting her, and the man was murdered in cold blood without getting any chance to defend himself.<<
I have been all over Google about this and I can not find where she is a troubled teenager.
This is her uncle and she says she was raped when she was 9.
Also, the mother drove to the Police directly after and gave herself up. Apparently there was enough evidence to the mom that this was true.
I agree with you to a point, but only to a point.
You would have KILLED him if you THOUGHT he raped your daughter? Do you want to change that?
Wait a minute. So if you get aquitted of homocide, they can charge you with voluntary manslaughter? That doesn't sound right!
>>>Double jeopardy only applies if there is an actual decision in the first trial. As the Jury deadlocked, there was no decision, and she can legally be retried. >>>
They only deadlocked on the lessor charges, the homocide charge was as aquittal.
Yeah right. It was her uncle, and she was 10 years old.
You would have KILLED him if you THOUGHT he raped your daughter? YES!
Do you want to change that? NO!
>>>Double jeopardy does not come into play because the original jury neither convicted nor acquitted the defendant on the lesser offense of manslaughter. Since the jury did acquit the defendant on the greater charge of murder, the State could only re-try the defendant for the lesser offense.>>>
So how can they charge her with murder AND voluntary manslaughter?
Because voluntary manslaughter is a lesser offense of murder.
I am wondering who witnesed this "admission of guilt."
Well, that may be what the law says, but in many parts of Texas and probably elsewhere across the country a case like this might very well get no-billed. If it happened to my daughter, I'd respond the same way. Expecting "justice" from our legal system is a futile effort.
Yes, I have serious issues with vigilante justice. Someone is in the process of commiting a crime, blow their head off. But having this woman as judge, jury and executioner is hardly rule of law.
So, you just would go and kill someone on the word of your daughter?
There was, an acquital on first degree murder charges for the offense of killing him.
Now they convicted her of voluntary manslaughter for the offense of killing him.
Different charges, same offense. Shouldn't last 30 minutes in an appeals court.
If they had convicted her on a charge regarding another offense, it would have been ok. As it is, this is as clear a case of double jeopardy as you will ever see.
Of course, they do it all the time in politically charged cases.
That's exactly my first question, before emotionally jumping to conclusions on such a sensitive issue.
And my next question is, if she WAS right, was the scumbag charged, tried and convicted?
I can't say I blame her much, but we do have a criminal justice system in place for such matters.
My feeling is that this article is missing some very key pieces of information.
(I'm not saying I wouldn't have killed him, I would have just done it a little differently.)
They should make her the sheriff.
here's another link that doesn't require subscription
http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/221063
I'm inclined to believe her - the mind does strange things under stress.
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