Posted on 08/28/2009 12:25:31 PM PDT by DCBryan1
Tennessee Jury Lets Torturer-Murderer-Rapist Live, to Prey on Others August 28, 12:24 PMDC SCOTUS ExaminerHans BaderPrevious Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe Subscribe Get alerts when there is a new article from the DC SCOTUS Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use. Email Address
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Some juries are indulgent towards even the most vicious and plainly-guilty criminals. A Nashville jury just let a nightmarishly-evil torturer-murderer-rapist, Letalvis Cobbins, escape the death penalty in the rapes, torture, mutilation, and murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian. Now, he can spend the rest of his life raping and preying on vulnerable prison inmates, like first-time offenders.
The jurors who blocked the death penalty may have mistakenly believed that they were sophisticated and progressive by rejecting the death penalty, but in truth, they were being cruel, since, as it says in Midrash, he who is kind to the cruel is cruel to the kind. Scholars like Ernest Van Den Haag have concluded that the death penalty actually saves lives by deterring murders. (A recent Emory University study says that each execution deters approximately 18 murders). When I was a young liberal, I used to oppose the death penalty, in part because I was arrogant and it made me feel morally superior to those who support it based on “gut instinct.” But “gut instincts,” such as indignation, are important guides to what is right and wrong. As the great Athenian lawgiver Solon noted, true justice will not be achieved until those who have not been victimized by crime are just as indignant as those who have been.
The horrifying facts of the case are reprinted below; if you are squeamish, don’t read further. I describe them in order to explain why it is an insult to justice to give a torturer-rapist-murderer like Letalvis Cobbins the same sentence that many ordinary murderers receive:
“On Saturday January 6, 2007 Hugh Christopher Newsom, age 23 and Channon Gail Christian, age 21, both students at the University of Tennessee went out on a date. They were driving in Channon’s Toyota 4-Runner when they were carjacked at gunpoint. Suddenly the crime turned far more savage than an armed car theft. Chris and Channon were kidnapped and driven to 2316 Chipman Street where they were forced into the home at gunpoint. While Channon was forced to watch, her boyfriend was raped prison style and then his penis was cut off. He was later driven to nearby railroad tracks where he was shot and set afire. But Channon’s hell was just beginning. She was beaten; gang raped repeatedly in many ways, had one of her breasts cut off and bleach poured down her throat to destroy DNA evidence-all while she was still alive. To add to Channon’s degradation the suspects took turns urinating on her. They too set her body afire, apparently inside the residence, but for some reason left her body there-in five separate trash bags.”
“Christian suffered horrific injuries to her vagina, anus and mouth. She was not only raped but savaged with ‘an object,’ possibly a broken chair leg, the doctor testified.”
Yet the defense attorneys for Letalvis Cobbins, one of the five people who perpetrated these atrocities, think that he can be rehabilitated, and will not pose a risk to others in the future. Do you agree? I don’t. If I were a first-time prison inmate, in for something like drug possession, I would be scared to death by this vicious criminal’s presence.
Some have speculated that the jurors refused to impose the death penalty out of racial favoritism, and that some on the “racially-diverse” jury may have had difficulty empathizing with the victims, who were white. When a Brooklyn jury acquitted the killer of Yankel Rosenbaum, who died in the 1991 anti-semitic riots in Crown Heights, commentators suggested that race similarly played a role in the acquittal, citing the seemingly “airtight” evidence against defendant Lemrick Nelson, who had been identified by the dying Rosenbaum as his killer. If the race of the victims and perpetrators in this case had been switched, the ensuing media coverage would have dwarfed the Duke Lacrosse case.
The crime didn’t happen in Nashville (Davidson County), where the jury was chosen. The case was moved there, rather than to a less pro-defendant venue closer to whether the crime actually occurred, by presiding Judge Richard Baumgartner, a liberal Democrat. His excuse was that the case needed to be moved from Knoxville due to adverse pre-trial publicity; but if so, that merely justified a move, not a move to distant Nashville, 180 miles away. Tennessee voters should ask why Baumgartner did this.
This kind of crap is why vigilantes spring up. If you can’t get justice within the system, then you must resort to alternate means.
Yet the defense attorneys for Letalvis Cobbins, one of the five people who perpetrated these atrocities, think that he can be rehabilitated, and will not pose a risk to others in the future ...
***
Lets all have milk & cookies, hold hands, sing Kumbaya, and have a nappie-poo ...
Sheesh !!!
So there is no justice or equal treatment for whites. Anytime a black-on-white crime occurs, the defense can just stack the jury with blacks, who will not "empathize" with the white victim(s) because they're white. What kind of monster could fail to empathize with people treated so brutally? I would empathize with Christian and Newsome no matter WHAT race they were. But apparently blacks can only empathize with blacks.
God help us all!
I was on a jury for a case of black on black crime. The black jurors did not want to vote guilty on the elements of the crime to which the black defendant ADMITTED GUILT!!!
I was flabbergasted. BTW, I held out as the lone guilty vote on the major element of the crime. Was called a racist etc. During juror deliberations, the “innocent” plead guilt to ALL charges.
Josa, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
" Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."(Genesis 9:6)
Justice from the court system is best, but justice is an absolute requirement. I have faith in the good people of TN to fix this courtroom travesty.
This is the kind of decision you get when only the unemployed will go to jury duty. These jurors, (whoever they were) had no empathy for the victims. The victims were not considered human beings by the perpetrators or the jury. They were raped twice. This is why trials should not be moved out of the original jurisdiction. The 5 “men” who did this do not deserve to live. If the victims had been carrying guns they would have had a fighting chance. My prayers go for the families.
Just a follow-up. The prosecutor was black and the jury was 6 blacks, 5 whites, and 1 asian. According to the law, the victim’s impact statement made in court must be read and approved IN ADVANCE by the judge AND the defense attorneys. It can then be read before the jury. The “sob sisters” who tearfully pleaded for Cobbins life to be spared were relatives from out-of-town and that was the one and only day they came to court. They did not have to have pre-approved, scripted statements unlike the victim’s family. The Newsom’s weren’t even allowed to read one for Chris.
Deena Christian has a Facebook page requesting prayers: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=10952439561&ref=nf
Actually, one of them is a woman. Letalvis Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson (1/2 bro to Cobbins), George Thomas, and Vanessa Coleman. Eric Boyd was convicted only of accessory.
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