The Jayson Williams Verdict [R]

[obie]

Split verdict - not guilty or no decision of the most serious charges (agg manslaughter, reckless manslaughter, unlawful weapons possession, aggravated assualt) but guilty on hindering apprehension, tampering with a witness, tampering with evidence, and fabricating phyiscal evidence. He will probably face jail time.

While it would have been better to get at least some verdict on the reckless manslaughter charge, this feels about right. It just proves once again that the cover-up, not the crime, is what gets you in the most trouble.

[Ian McCracken]

Split verdict - not guilty or no decision of the most serious charges (agg manslaughter, reckless manslaughter, unlawful weapons possession, aggravated assualt) but guilty on hindering apprehension, tampering with a witness, tampering with evidence, and fabricating phyiscal evidence. He will probably face jail time.

While it would have been better to get at least some verdict on the reckless manslaughter charge, this feels about right. It just proves once again that the cover-up, not the crime, is what gets you in the most trouble.

Feels about right? The guy put a shotgun to the head of his chauffeur, pulled the trigger, and killed a man. Then, tried to put the dead man's fingerprints on the gun and coached the witnesses to lie about what happened. Anything less than the death penalty or life in prison does not feel about right to me.

[soccernutter]

I agree with Obie from a legal standpoint. There just didn't seem to be enough to convict him. But I couldn't help but look at him as the verdicts were read off and think, "He's gonna be somebody's bitch."

[riverplate]

This is yet another case where somebody got off. According to the papers, a juror named Angela Pravata said, "He didn't have the look of a cold-blooded killer. I didn't see it in his eyes." Maybe she would have if he were pointing a shotgun at her. Apparently fists were victoriously pumped in the air as the "not guilty" verdicts were being given, and idiots were shouting "Go Jayson!"

Pathetic and sick.

:mad:

[skipshady]

I think the split verdict was, fair or not, quite appropo for Jayson Williams. He has always had a Jekyll & Hyde thing - he could be really sweet and charming, extremely generous with his time and money, yet he had a really dark side that he seemed to have put away since earlier in his career, but surfaced again when his career ended. I'm not surprised that the juror didn't think he could be a cold-blooded killer.
He can just as easily be Dr. Jekyll one moment and Mr. Hyde the next, from what I have read about him.

[microbrew]

Again, our legal system is up for sale to highest bidder. Apparently, Jayson's lawyers did their job on a manslaughter charges. They got the jury to focus on the 'accident' aspect, and not the 'reckless dangerous moron' aspect.

[Shaydee]

I love how there is an [R] in the title

[Danks81]

I read that he is being retried. Isn't that double jeopardy?