Posted on 04/10/2005 1:25:32 PM PDT by aculeus
SAN FRANCISCO, April 9 (Reuters) - A convicted murderer could be released from prison after 11 years because of a ruling on Friday that found it was wrong for family members of his victim to wear badges with an image of the victim during his trial.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued the ruling following a review of the case of Mathew Musladin, who was sentenced to life without parole in the 1994 murder of Tom Studer, his estranged wife's fiancé.
The decision means that county officials must decide whether to retry the case or to allow Mr. Musladin to go free, his lawyer, David Fermino, said.
The California attorney general's office could also request reconsideration of the case by an 11-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit. A spokesman said officials were considering their response.
During Mr. Musladin's trial, three of Mr. Studer's family members wore buttons bearing his image within clear sight of the jury. The appellate court ruled that the images had a prejudicial impact.
"Here, the direct link between the buttons, the spectators wearing the buttons, the defendant, and the crime that the defendant allegedly committed was clear and unmistakable," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the three-judge appellate court panel. "A reasonable jurist would be compelled to conclude that the buttons worn by Studer's family members conveyed the message that the defendant was guilty."
One of the three judges dissented.
"The buttons were three to four inches in diameter and, except for the deceased victim's picture, there was nothing else on them. The buttons conveyed no 'message,' " Judge David Thompson wrote.
"The addition of buttons worn by them showing only the victim's photograph would add little if anything to any possible risk of impermissibly prejudicing the jury."
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
Only the criminal has rights.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Reason #1 why the US Legal System should be torn down completely and rebuilt. Probably can't do that, but I just had to say it. I feel better.
One intelligent judge in three.
About par for the course in the 9th Circuit...
Response: " there comes a time in the history of every people when they become so pathologically soft and tender that they actually side with those elements of their society that harms them, i.e. criminals..."- A Great Historian 1888
"Reason #1 why the US Legal System should be torn down completely and rebuilt."
Nope. The legal system *has* a solution to this type of judicial abuse -- impeachment. It is time for Congress to grow a set and start impeaching idjit judges. You CAN remove a judge from office for being a jerk. The Constitution does not require a judge to have committed a crime to be impeached and convicted. Congress can set those standards.
It should be done even if they cannot get convicted. You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride. I am sure just the ride will be enough to tone down the really stupid rulings.
How did I somehow know this was 9th Circus?
The 21st century is becoming a WHOPPER.....
The point of a murder trial is not to establish that the victim is dead or that the family loved the victim.
The point of a murder trial is to establish if the accused had anything to do with the death.
If the jury believed that the prosecution had the wrong man, thousands of photos of the victim should make no difference.
'Nuff said.
You can't wear no stinkin' badges.
Bull crap.
Only an idiot jurist would come to that conclusion. And why would they be compelled? Were these little hypnosis buttons with laser beams and spinning eyes? What a farce our judicial system has become.
Bob Dylan may have been right after all.
"Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land...where justice is a game."
CWII is looking more plausible and necessary....
Semper Fi
They wore badges with the dead guy's picture on them?! That was so MEAN. I'll bet the murderer felt really bad. He ought to sue them!!!
This fits in very well with the Liberal mindset: they don't really believe in people. They think the "average" man and woman is not capable of making a decision for themselves; not on health care, or a job, or a career, or life issues, or raising children, or at the ballot box, and certainly not on juries. They treat us like children that only they can lead. No different than the ideas of the Oktober revolutionists in Russia. It's amazing they haven't tried to get rid of the jury system, yet.
The Ninth Circuit used to be the worst in the country, but the rest of the judiciary is following close behind.
Dopy, Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Lefty, Druggy, and Dip$hit.
I have updated my FMCDH (From My Cold Dead Hands) sign-off with the addition of (BITS).....Blood In The Streets, which I foresee coming soon, due to the enormous increase of the Marxist progressive movement being shoved down the throat of this failing REPUBLIC through the Judicial tyranny of fiat law, the passing of unconstitutional laws by the Legislative and Executive branches of our government and the enormous tax burden placed upon the average American to support unconstitutional programs put forth by Marxist ideology.
I do not advocate revolution. I just see what is coming.
FMCDH(BITS)
George Bush has been in office over 4 years now and I don't recall him making any appointments to the 9th. Have there been no vacancies, or are the appointments being held up? Or is my recollection just wrong? Seems like we'd be getting fewer of these "the 9th is up to it again" type stories if Bush had put any new jurists on there.
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