Tag: Crime

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“Ms. Amanda Knox Was Acquitted Of Murder”

The ReadyWriter

Amanda Knox was acquitted today of a murder that riveted three countries for the past four years and just hours later was whisked away from an Italian prison, ending her four-year ordeal.

The Seattle woman’s legs buckled and she let out a silent cry when the judge in Perugia, Italy, announced that the  appeals court had thrown out her conviction for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher and vacated her 26-year prison sentence.

Knox, 24,  was hustled out of the courtroom, barely able to walk, stumbling while being hauled along by court
officers. The former exchange student was crying and doubled over, her head occasionally coming up for big breaths of air.

Hours later, a pair of black vehicles slid out of the gates of Capanne Prison outside of Perugia, with Knox in the back seat. She is expected to return to home to Seattle immediately.

Both Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27, confessed to the murder of Meredith Kercher in 2007. They were sentenced to serve sentences of 26 years and 25 years respectively.

Rudy Guede, a black man who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the rape and murder of Meredith Kercher, has exhausted his appeals.

Do you feel the media has once again influenced a court to free a murderer who should spend the rest of her life in prison?

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“Troy Davis Executed” – Was It A Legal Lynching?”

The ReadyWriter

Strapped to a gurney in Georgia’s death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that “he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail”. Yet the state of GA still executed him and he was pronounced dead at 11:08 PM.

Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case and ultimately denied Troy Davis a stay.

Justice Clarence Thomas resides over the GA jurisdiction, so I knew Davis didn’t have a chance.

Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as  Davis’ final days ticked away.

MacPhail’s family (the cop who was killed in 1989) was relieved, they feel justice has been served.

MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone in an interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. “All the feelings of relief and peace I’ve been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace.” She then dismissed Davis’ claims of innocence. “He’s been telling himself that for 22 years…You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything.”

The McPhail family was relieved and feel justice had been served? Yet killing Troy Davis will not bring their loved one back. Why kill Troy Davis? Why not let him live out his life in prison?

Davis’ execution had been halted three times since 2007 but on September 21, 2011 his fight for justice ended when he was executed however, his family has a long fight ahead as they continue the fight and Troy’s last wishes to find the truth in this case.

Troy Davis said to the prion officials about to take his life “May God have mercy on your souls”.

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Update:”Execution Delayed…Supreme Court To Review”

The ReadyWriter

It will take 5 Supreme Court judges to grant a “stay” in the Troy Davis Case…Stay tuned let’s see what happens.

Despite last-minute interventions by the US Supreme court, a Georgia parole board denied 42-year-old Troy Davis’ petition for clemency.

Davis’ attorneys have pleaded their client’s case to the parole board for years and then for three hours yesterday. Their argument is “Davis would be sent to death under an “enormous cloud of doubt” about his guilt.

Davis was convicted in 1991 of shooting police officer Mark MacPhail to death in Savannah, Georgia in 1989. MacPhail, who was working a second job as a security guard, was shot to death as he went to the aid of a homeless man being attacked by Davis and Sylvester “Redd” Coles in a parking lot.

MacPhail was shot in the heart and face by a black man in a white shirt, according to witnesses. The officer died instantly before he could draw his weapon. Davis was wearing a white shirt that night., however, there is little and/or no evidence to support his guilty verdict.

Earlier that day, Davis was involved in the shooting of another man during a road rage incident. That victim survived his injuries.

On August 19, Coles, went to police and implicated Davis in MacPhail’s killing. That same evening, one of Davis’ sisters drove Davis to Atlanta in an attempt to evade arrest.

Late Monday, Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, said the family was “just praying for a good outcome.”

“He’s guilty,” MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said. “We need to go ahead and execute him.”

Calls for Davis to be spared execution have been made by numerous dignitaries, including former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, former FBI Director William Sessions, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and Larry Thompson, the former deputy U.S. attorney general. Davis’ advocates, including Amnesty International and the NAACP, have used social media to rally worldwide support. Last week, Davis’ supporters presented the parole board with the names of more than 663,000 people asking that Davis be granted clemency. Their efforts have been to no avail and fallen on deaf ears.

Davis is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday (tomorrow) at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson.

Source

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“Female High School Basketball Star Shot And Killed”

The ReadyWriter

One of the nation’s top girls high school basketball prospects was gunned down inside her apartment building in what her friends and family say was a case of mistaken identity.

According to published reports, 18-year-old Tayshana Murphy, nicknamed Chicken, was shot and killed around 4:10 a.m. Sunday morning in the Grant Harlem housing projects.

According to the NY Daily News, Murphy, wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, left a party at 4 a.m. with a group of friends from her housing project. She was confronted by a gunman and chased through an alley.

According to some who were at the party, Murphy was mistaken by her assailant for a boy who was wearing the same sweatshirt. She pleaded her innocence to the gunman.

Hours after Tayshana was pronounced dead, her mother Stephanie Holston spoke to the NY Daily News about her daughter’s dreams to move her out of the ghetto.

Murphy, who was rated the class of 2012′s No. 16 point guard by ESPN.com’s HoopGurlz recruiting site, was cited as one of the top girl’s basketball prospects in the city by the Daily News. She had drawn interest from several colleges, her family said.

Tayshana’s killer is still at large.

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“Man Detained As 2nd American Female Missing In Aruba”

The ReadyWriter

Six years after American teenager Natalie Holloway went missing in Aruba, a second American female has turned up missing under mysterious circumstances.

According to published reports, a 50-year-old man with a history of domestic violence against women is being held in the disappearance of Robyn Gardner.

Gardner, 35, of Frederick, Maryland, went missing on August 2 from the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino in Oranjestad, Aruba. Gary Giordano was detained on Friday, August 5, by Aruban police as he attempted to board a plane and leave the island.

Giordano has a history of domestic violence against his ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend. His ex-wife, and at least one other woman, obtained restraining orders against Giordano in the past, according to Gawker.com.

Reportedly, Gardner hooked up with Giordano after meeting him online last month. The pair traveled to Aruba on vacation and Giordano told authorities that Gardner disappeared while snorkeling.

18-year-old high school student Natalee Holloway went missing on the Aruban island during a class trip in 2005. Aruban native Joran van der Sloot is suspected in her death. He is currently in a Peruvian prison on charges of murdering another woman. Holloway’s body has never been found.