Samurai killer wins police brutality case, $1 award

The Morning Call ^ | 11/29/06 | Matt Birkbeck Of The Morning Call

[Deguello]

The attorneys would bill their client off the top of the award. This way, they have a lien on the annual payments and get the money less taxes taken out (withholding) and the jailed client would get nothing while the IRS gets their cut.

[arthurus]

That usually means the jury thinks the the man was technically correct but does not actually sympathize with his case.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Sounds like the jury found he didn't suffer much in the way of actual damages, so they awarded him enough for a few Tylenol.

[frithguild]

An excessive force case in Federal court is more than likely filed under jurisdiction granted by the Civil Rights Act. The Marine's lawyers will get paid by the defendants at probably about $250 per hour, maybe more. My SWAG is that the legal bill will be about a quarter of a million.

But during closing arguments, defense attorney Kristina Evans, one of three attorneys from Dechert LLP in Philadelphia representing Thomas, questioned why it took 10 officers to restrain Thomas, who stood 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds.

What an idiot - he was a Marine!

P.S. - Any Marines on the jury?

[dennisw]

He got $1 .... Makes it harder to appeal I believe than if his idiotic lawsuit was tossed out

[theanonymouslurker]

Excellent, well thought out award. Kudos to the jury. I will say again, as I have said on other threads, the power to defend against unfair judgments oftentimes rests in the hands of competent jurors.

Please make sure you serve jury duty when called; you will thereby become part of the solution.