Thought I might offer a few reflections on these before continuing:
"On Monday, Judge E. Susan Garsh convened a brief session to discuss a request from the jury of seven women and five men. It was a request that seemed to suggest that the duty of deciding the guilt or innocence of Hernandez had begun to weigh on jurors. “We will reinstitute the smoke breaks,” Garsh announced, adding that smokers on the jury would be accompanied by a court officer and reminded to avoid discussing the case outside the deliberation room. Defense attorney James Sultan asked if jurors had been granted smoking breaks during the trial. Yes, Garsh said. “Now, they want them back,” Sultan said. “Right,” Garsh said. Jurors are scheduled to resume deliberations Tuesday, smoking breaks included."
Oh, that's why the spun up quick after seven days.
I'm going to let you reflect on these without the benefit of the colorful team pageantry today. Enjoy!
"Aaron Hernandez found guilty of murder; Convicted in 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd, sentenced to life in prison" by Travis Andersen and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff April 15, 2015
FALL RIVER — In a stunning reversal of fortune for a man who once sprinted into end zones as a National Football League star, Aaron Hernandez was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Odin L. Lloyd, who prosecutors said made the fatal error of angering the former New England Patriots tight end at a club two nights before the killing.
Hernandez, 25, was sentenced to a mandatory life term without the possibility of parole. He stood expressionless in Bristol Superior Court as the jury forewoman pronounced him guilty, and he later sat down and shook his head.
The verdict came on the seventh day of deliberations and provoked emotional responses from the families of Hernandez and Lloyd, who sat on opposite sides of the cramped courtroom.
Hernandez’s mother, Terri Hernandez, and his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, held one another and wept. Hernandez looked toward the women repeatedly, whispering “be strong.”
Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward, also cried as she sat near Jenkins’s now-estranged sister, Shaneah, who dated Lloyd.
That's the real tragedy here.
*************************
The verdict capped an 11-week trial that included testimony from 132 prosecution witnesses, including Patriots owner Robert Kraft; Shayanna Jenkins; and a former friend of the athlete who had claimed in a lawsuit that Hernandez shot him in the face in Florida four months before the execution-style slaying of Lloyd. The defense called only three witnesses.
On Wednesday, prosecutors praised jurors for looking past Hernandez’s status as a celebrated athlete once cheered at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, the Patriots’ home field. After the verdict, he was taken to MCI Cedar Junction in Walpole, less than 2 miles from Gillette Stadium, where he will await permanent placement in the state’s prison system.
“Aaron Hernandez may have been a well-known New England Patriots football player,” District Attorney Thomas Quinn told reporters outside the courthouse. “However, in the end, the jury found that he was just a man who committed a brutal murder.”
Hernandez’s lawyers did not comment after the verdict, and at sentencing, defense attorney James Sultan said only that “we don’t have anything to add.”
***********************
Prosecutors never pinpointed his motive for killing Lloyd, but portrayed Hernandez as a young man who, despite his good looks, sizable fortune, and apparently bright future, was secretive, thin-skinned, and easily provoked by perceived slights.
Witnesses testified that Hernandez and Lloyd went to a Boston club two nights before the murder, and Hernandez appeared angry after Lloyd began talking with other people. Hernandez stormed out of the club and went back to his vehicle to retrieve a handgun, witnesses testified.
But the murder weapon was never found, and there was no eyewitness to testify. So prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Hernandez, weaving together surveillance footage, cellphone records, and DNA and other evidence found at the crime scene to tell the story of Lloyd’s final ride. The government also called witnesses who described a pattern of suspicious behavior by Hernandez before and after the slaying.
Shayanna Jenkins, who faces a perjury indictment tied to the case, was compelled to testify for prosecutors and said Hernandez told her to remove a box from the couple’s basement the day after the killing.
Authorities believe the box contained the .45 caliber Glock used to kill Lloyd, while defense attorneys said it may have held compressed packages of marijuana, based on Jenkins’s testimony about its smell and weight.
The defense also claimed the investigation was biased and incompetent from the start, as police fixated on Hernandez and declined to follow up on evidence pointing to other suspects....
DA's and police always do that.
The defense had argued the evidence did not add up to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They said prosecutors failed to credibly explain why Hernandez wanted to kill Lloyd, describing the men as “future brothers-in-law” who dated sisters, pursued other women together, smoked marijuana, and socialized at family gatherings and nightclubs.
But on Wednesday, lead prosecutor William McCauley suggested that Lloyd, who rode a bicycle to his landscaping job, shared little in common with Hernandez.
“I think it was a great contrast between two young men,” McCauley said. “The defendant, who had so much — so much ability, talent, money, all the things that everyone thinks you need. And you had Odin Lloyd, who didn’t want that.”
Didn't want that or didn't have that?
Lloyd, McCauley said, “didn’t want [anything] given to him. He was going to earn it.”
The implication being Hernandez -- regardless of what you think of him -- didn't do that to get where he was.
Also Wednesday, the entire jury addressed reporters in an unusual news conference after rendering their verdict. One juror, Kelly Dorsey of Taunton, said the panel had not prejudged the high-profile case.
I couldn't help myself.
“You have to assume that the man sitting in that seat is innocent until the prosecution proves he’s guilty and that’s what happened today,” Dorsey said....
Yup, everything works out just fine in AmeriKan JU$tu$!
--more--"
Juror's having their say:
"Jurors ‘shocked’ by defense tactic in Hernandez trial" by Maria Cramer, Globe Staff April 15, 2015
FALL RIVER — After 10 weeks of testimony, more than 130 witnesses, and hundreds of pieces of evidence, the jurors in the trial of Aaron Hernandez on Wednesday revealed that one of the key factors that helped them convict the former NFL star of murder came in an admission made during the defense team’s closing argument.
“We were all shocked,” one juror said of the defense’s acknowledgment that Hernandez was in the North Attleborough industrial yard at the same time that Lloyd, 27, was shot to death.
The jurors, in an unusual press conference after the verdict Wednesday, said the admission helped corroborate the other evidence against Hernandez.
Prosecutors had steadily worked to build a circumstantial case, with no murder weapon or clear motive to bolster the first-degree-murder charge against the 25-year-old.
But during final statements, just before jurors began deliberations, the defense admitted that Hernandez was present at the crime scene — a strategy that legal specialists said could cut either way. If the defense lawyers were willing to acknowledge there was enough evidence to put Hernandez at the scene, the jurors might be open to the alternative theory that someone else had committed the murder.
However, it was a gamble that did not pay off, said Martin Healy, the Massachusetts Bar Association’s chief legal counsel.
I thought it was a good defense team, but it turns out that they hung Hernandez out to dry like a Brady pass over the middle. They gambled on a football trial and lost.
“It looks like it was more damaging than helpful to the defendant,” Healy said Wednesday. “I think what happened here is there were a number of circumstantial events that led the jury to their conclusions,” he said. “It wasn’t one single factor that they were able to hang their verdict on.”
It took about 35 hours of deliberations over seven days for the jury to reach a verdict, but the seven women and five men said they felt confident they made the right decision.
Now gimme my smokes!
My feeling on the whole matter -- and he may well be the one who murdered the guy, it's a three-way toss-up -- is that with no murder weapon, motive, or witness testimony, I couldn't have convicted. The fact that the case took so long to be brought also didn't help. I'm thinking that charging Hernandez was also a career move for these prosecutors; you charge the other guys of actual murder and there isn't all the pre$$ and resume-building attention.
Sorry, that's just the way I see from my jury box.
Their confidence only grew when Judge E. Susan Garsh informed the jury that Hernandez also faces murder charges in the 2012 shooting of two men in Boston. Garsh, who met privately with the jurors after the verdict, also told them about allegations that Hernandez shot his one-time friend, Alexander Bradley, in the face. Bradley testified during the trial, but was not allowed to mention the shooting. The jurors were kept unaware of the other allegations, which were not allowed as evidence during the trial, until Garsh told them.
“I think we can all stand here and say we made the right decision,” said jury forewoman Malessa Strachan.
Okay.
All 12 jurors and three alternates gathered in the jury room in the Fall River Justice Center to discuss the case. It is rare for a jury to appear as a group after a verdict; the judge had told them the news media would be less likely to track them down at home for a comment on the high-profile case if they spoke at the courthouse.
None would discuss the deliberations, and most were reluctant to reveal what had motivated their decision.
But they said they were not swayed by the defense argument that it was Hernandez’s former friends and alleged coconspirators, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, who killed Lloyd in a drug-fueled rage. Defense attorneys said Ortiz and Wallace, who were also charged with murder but will be tried separately, were PCP users.
Jurors said surveillance footage taken at the athlete’s North Attleborough home that showed him relaxing with Ortiz and Wallace in the hours after the murder made them skeptical of the defense theory.
One juror said a “mind-blowing” moment came when the jury learned that the serial number of a .22-caliber firearm found not far from where Lloyd was killed matched the number on a .22 purchased for Hernandez in Florida.
Juror Jon Carlson, a district manager from Attleboro, said he was influenced by Patriots owner Robert Kraft's testimony that in the days following Lloyd’s killing, Hernandez told him he hoped the time of the murder would be released to the public because it would show he was innocent. Kraft testified that Hernandez told him he was at a nightclub at the time.
“We still don’t know the exact time of Odin’s murder specifically, so I don’t know how Aaron would have that information two years ago,” Carlson said.
Still, the jurors could not unanimously decide that Hernandez acted with premeditation when he killed Lloyd. They did agree that he acted with extreme atrocity and cruelty, one of the legal standards required for a jury to convict a defendant of first-degree murder.
“The shots, there were six of them,” said juror Rosalie Oliver of Rehoboth. “That’s extreme.”
During the trial, jurors hid their emotions, even when grisly crime photos were shown and grief-stricken witnesses, including Lloyd’s girlfriend and mother, took the stand. But they said on Wednesday there were moments when they wanted to cry.
“You’re told be unemotional,” said Jennifer Rogers, a dental hygienist from New Bedford. “To sit there and hold back tears is hard.”
They had to deal with other emotions during the trial. They stifled laughter during awkward moments of defense cross-examination of police witnesses. They said they felt sorry for Kraft, who was obviously fighting a cold when he took the stand. The jurors also revealed that they had to fight boredom during some of the more plodding parts of the trial, specifically the hours of testimony by cellphone experts discussing texts between Hernandez and Lloyd.
:-(
“We definitely experienced information overload,” said one juror, Anthony Ferry.
“But it was important information,” said Kelly Dorsey, a Taunton resident. “Every bit of it. Whatever we got was important information and we used it to make a decision.”
On Wednesday morning, jurors who had been stoic for so long finally showed emotions in public. They laughed while joking about going to a bar after the verdict. One said the experience was so stressful she hoped she would never be seated on a jury again.
They just sent a man to prison for life and have destroyed a family, and they are laughing about it!!
Sean Traverse, an assistant store manager from Norton, fought back tears as he described how the experience changed him.
“It makes you appreciate how quickly life can end,” he said, his voice growing hoarse. “How fleeting it can be.”
Yeah, which is why -- with all due respect to Odin Lloyd, I'm not condoning or approving the killing of anyone -- I constantly interject comments and arguments regarding the MASS-MURDERING WARS based on LIES that have resulted in the DEATHS of HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS over the last 15 years!!
--more--"
Of course, the Globe and their columnists also get to have their say as I close the coverage. Think there will be a parade?
Another, less publicized Hernandez trial:
"Defense makes final arguments in case of missing N.Y. boy" by Colleen Long, Associated Press April 14, 2015
NEW YORK — Two men have admitted to taking 6-year-old Etan Patz on the day he vanished nearly 36 years ago; one is on trial for murder and the other was never charged. Both stories can’t be true, a defense attorney said Monday.
‘‘Two confessions. Which person is more likely to have been a predator?’’ Harvey Fishbein asked the jury during closing arguments in the case against Pedro Hernandez. He suggested the real killer is Jose Ramos, a convicted pedophile considered the prime suspect for years.
Ramos, currently in jail in Pennsylvania, said in 1988 that he was ‘‘90 percent sure’’ that a boy he took from a park and tried to molest was Etan, according to former federal law enforcement officials who testified for Hernandez’s defense.
A former jailhouse informant also said Ramos admitted to molesting Etan the day he disappeared and said officials would never find the body.
Etan’s body has never been found.
Hernandez told police he lured Etan to the basement of a neighborhood convenience store where he choked him and disposed of the body in a stairwell about two blocks away. Etan had been on his way to the store to buy a drink before school, his mother testified.
Hernandez was a teenage stock clerk there at the time Etan disappeared but had never been considered a suspect.
His name appears in law enforcement paperwork only one time during their lengthy investigation. The Maple Shade, N.J., man made the stunning admissions in 2012 after police received a tip from a relative that he may have been involved in the case.
Ramos could not have been with Etan on May 25, 1979, if the boy was near the corner store with Hernandez, Fishbein said. And similarly, ‘‘Pedro could not have seen Etan Patz at the corner and taken him down to the basement if he was with Jose Ramos.’’
With all due respect, that is a terrible defense! It's a 50-50 proposition for the jury.
Ramos has publicly denied any involvement in the boy’s disappearance. He said he would invoke his right against self-incrimination if he were called to testify.
Prosecutors will give their summation Tuesday, but assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon has argued that Hernandez’s confession is sound. He is seen on hours of video confessing to the crime, frequently repeating the details.
--more--"
My reflection on this case -- other than the obvious self-centered quality of the jew$media -- is that it is nothing more than providing the suffering Jewish family with a scapegoat and legal closure. Truth and innocence have nothing to do with it.
Related: Time to Reflect on Tsarnaev Trial
Upon further reflection: Tsarnaev trial helps heal a violent world
I think that guy needs mental help. At least it's proved the AmeriKan JU$tu$ $y$tem works, right? A nice good show trial will heal all wounds!
"The day of commemoration began in the morning chill, handmade blue-and-yellow peace signs were posted along Boylston. One read, “No more hurting people. #PEACE” — a reference to a sign held by Martin Richard in a school photo. Both bombing sites drew pilgrims throughout the day. Keri Palazzo's father was killed in the 9/11 attacks. After the ceremonies, Jeff Bauman, who lost most of both legs, put his arm around Carlos Arredondo, who had rushed to his aid after the blast. In the spirit of “One Boston Day,” many residents performed random acts of kindness across the city."
Okay, cold morning (pffft) and the psyops are flying regarding the conventional narrative of myth. Shameless peace promotion by a goddamn war paper followed by the odd reference to the "pilgrims" -- as if it is some sort of holy site! After the citing of a tie to 9/11 and the clownish crisis actors I was really ready to hurl at the random acts of kindness throughout the city. What's next, all joining hands and singing Cumbaya?
I didn't think things could get any more disgusting and then I logged on to this:
Nations Prepare to Extend MH370 Search
More diversion and distraction after how many months now? Think I will be believing anything lying government authority and its mouthpiece media come up with now? Pah!
And how is the investigation going regarding this:
"A helicopter crashed outside Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, killing all six people on board, including a Malaysian lawmaker who was a former ambassador to the United States.
The copter crashed and burst into flames while flying back from
northern Kuantan town, the Department of Civil Aviation said. Jamaluddin
Jarjis, who was Malaysia’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2012, was among those on board."
Very interesting. Who wanted him dead, and why?
"Malaysia detains 17 people suspected of plotting terror acts" Associated Press April 07, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Police have detained 17 suspected militants who authorities said Monday had planned to attack police stations and army camps to acquire weapons and carry out terrorist acts in Kuala Lumpur.
Was the U.S. angry that Malaysia busted up a CIA cell on the verge of a false flag?
Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said the supects were detained Sunday. Khalid tweeted that two of them had just returned from Syria.
This brought the number of suspected supporters of the Islamic State arrested in Malaysia since last year to 92, a police official said.
Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said the 17, between the ages of 14 and 44, were planning to attack police stations and army camps to acquire weapons.
He was quoted by the national Bernama news agency as saying in Parliament that the group was also planning to kidnap certain high-profile individuals. Their names were not disclosed.
Authorities also believe the suspects were trying to make bombs, as police found notes on bomb-making written by Imam Samudra, an Indonesian who was convicted and executed for his role in carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings, Zahid said.
The suspects included two army personnel and two students, and some of them had received militant training in Afghanistan and Indonesia’s Sulawesi province.
The detentions came days after the Home Ministry proposed two new antiterror laws that will reintroduce indefinite detention without trial and allow the seizure of passports of anyone suspected of supporting terror acts.
In other words, this is more agenda-pushing psyops from government. Need to get their liberty-limiting and tyrannical laws in place.
--more--"
"Malaysia OK’s detention without trial" Associated Press April 08, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia revived detention without trial when lawmakers approved an antiterrorism law Tuesday that the government said was needed to fight Islamic militants.
Critics assailed the law as a giant step backward for human rights in the country.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act bill was passed by Parliament’s lower house in the early hours of the morning after hours of debate, with 79 votes in favor and 60 against. The law allows authorities to detain suspects indefinitely without trial, with no court challenges permitted.
Sound familiar, Americans?
The government said the measure was needed because dozens of Malaysians have been arrested since 2013 for suspected links to Islamic State militants. Authorities on Sunday arrested 17 people, including an Indonesian militant, accused of planning to rob banks and attack police stations and army camps to obtain weapons.
Critics said the new law was a revival of the Internal Security Act, which was repealed in 2012. New York-based Human Rights Watch said it raised concerns that the government will once again use the law to intimidate and silence vocal critics.
Have they ever really stopped wherever you live?
‘‘By restoring indefinite detention without trial, Malaysia has reopened a Pandora’s box for politically motivated, abusive state actions that many had thought was closed when the abusive Internal Security Act was revoked in 2012,’’ said the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.
Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, however, said the new law was crucial to curb the rise of Islamic militants. ‘‘This is a real threat, and prevention measures are needed,’’ he said during the debate.
Okay, yup, mm-hmmm. This CIA-created ghosts and the rest, it's all real, all the fake videos, real, all the war lies, real, blah, blah, blah. This is a government piggybacking on the babble to repress its citizens, period.
Police said the 17 people were arrested during a secret meeting Sunday to plot attacks in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
So who is their CIA case officer?
--more--"
This will require deeper reflection:
".... Richard Engel wasn’t taken hostage by anyone. They staged the whole thing from beginning to end. It was a lie. Propaganda.
In all likelihood, Engel and his fellow hostages enjoyed a 5 day mini-vacation in Jordan where they were prepped for the media onslaught to take place after his return to the camera during which time they filmed a couple videos where they pretended to be hostages sitting in some dilapidated little shack.
Then the story was supposed to generate support for the “freedom fighters” because Assad was so evil he was taking journalists hostage.
Today the story is about generating support for the “moderate freedom fighters” because they stood up to the rogue “moderate freedom fighters” and returned the journalists free of charge.
Manufacturing news like this is a deplorable act.
Making up fear mongering reports as is done all over the country is one thing. Staging events is another. It is the worst practice of the journalism profession and though it has been done many times in the past, it seems it is becoming almost commonplace.
I do not know what motivated Engel and NBC to reveal this pathetic attempt at yellow journalism in the first place. My guess would be that in the near future, or perhaps recently, someone else will be coming forward with information and this is simply their attempt at damage control.
Its just one more reason you can’t trust the corporate media with anything. Nothing they tell you is the truth. Nothing. What they report, their stories, are all bullshit. And that’s not just coming from a “conspiracy theorist”. That’s coming from their own organization.
That last paragraph is a real mind-bender and tough to get down, isn't it?
--MORE--"
I will now reflect on what I'm going to do going forward.
NDUs:
"Second trial, appeal mean much for Hernandez" by Travis Andersen Globe Staff April 17, 2015
Even though Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after his first-degree murder conviction in the slaying of Odin L. Lloyd, the stakes will remain high when he stands trial in Boston for the killing of two other men, legal specialists said.
The former New England Patriots star entered the state prison system following his conviction in Bristol Superior Court, where a clerk announced he would remain incarcerated for “a term of your natural life without the possibility of parole.”
But Hernandez is entitled to an appeal before the state’s highest court, and there are “always complex issues that arise in first-degree murder convictions,” said Jeffrey Denner, a prominent Boston defense lawyer.
He said Hernandez’s legal team in the Boston case will have to assume the prior conviction “may well not stand, and what really is standing between Hernandez and liberty is going to be the result of the Boston case,” Denner said.
The two cases differ in a few key aspects.
***************
The appeal process could take years, experts said. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said in a phone interview Hernandez told the officers who had transferred him to and from court that “I’m gonna miss you guys, and they got it wrong.”
--more--"
"We thank the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice, and the Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office for leaving no stone unturned during the investigation and trial. But now that the tireless and committed prosecution team has ensured that justice will be served, we urge the Department of Justice to bring the case to a close."
Gag, not everyone agrees, and I really do have to get running.
That pretty much puts me where I was yesterday when I led with this post. My view there is the plane was hijacked in one form or another, dropped off at Diego Garcia, and then trucked into Ukraine and dropped there to foment war with Russia. You may disagree, and perhaps you will reflect on doing some research yourself.
