That might have influenced the verdict
Posted on 09/18/2005 5:06:24 PM PDT by Ladysmith
MADISON — The foreman of a jury that found a Hmong immigrant guilty of killing six white deer hunters said Saturday the man’s testimony that he acted in self-defense was not credible.
Chai Soua Vang testified last week that he feared for his life after being threatened and called racial slurs and fired only after someone else shot at him first.
Jury foreman William Bremer said in a telephone interview that Vang could have walked away after the hunters angrily confronted him for trespassing on their land in some isolated northwestern Wisconsin woods.
After about 32 [sic] hours of deliberations and six days of testimony, the jurors found Vang guilty Friday of six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide in a verdict that will send him to prison for the rest of his life.
Bremer said he believed that the 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul had changed his story in court and said there were other inconsistencies. Bremer said testimony showed Vang initially had told sheriff’s investigator Garry Gillis that one of the hunters he confronted had shot all the people.
“The story he had told in court was not the first story he had told,” Bremer said. “I certainly kept in mind that he had opportunity to review other statements and other documents.”
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, who prosecuted the case, argued Vang gunned down the hunters in a rampage as they either watched in disbelief, were ambushed or were trying to flee. At the end of it, six were dead and two were injured. The victims included a father and son and a daughter of one of the survivors.
Jurors did not address the media after handing down the verdict Friday evening in Hayward in Sawyer County.
On Saturday, they returned home 280 miles south to Dane County, where they were picked because of publicity about the case and concern of anti-Hmong sentiment.
Bremer, a 58-year-old highway engineer who does not hunt, said he was ultimately unsure of the role race played in the Nov. 21 confrontation.
“Whether it would have happened if that was a white hunter or some other hunter, I have no idea,” Bremer said. “There was a lot of anger in the woods that day on both sides. But what caused that anger — the issue of trespassing was certainly very important. I don’t know.”
After the verdict, Vang’s family members said the all-white jury of eight women and four men could not empathize with Vang and the outcome may have been different had minorities been on the panel. Bremer rejected that view, saying race was not an issue in the jury deliberations.
In addition, Bremer said maps of the scene of the shootings cast doubt on the notion Vang was shot at first. Prosecutors said that was impossible given the layout of the area, but Vang called the maps inaccurate.
“I didn’t get very much sleep last night, but I’m at ease with my conscience and I know I made the right decision,” Bremer said.
Take care and stay safe.
Ladysmith
They would not be happy unless the jury was made up Vang's family members.
Just a racist big city guy, who doesn't like orientals, who fought the VC.
...who made some pretty outrageous statements after the verdict was given.
Well, you have to consider that "I felt threatened by that woman I shot in the back" is a story that could stand some fine-tuning...
And indeed it might have been (shades of OJ). That is one of the tragedies of multiculturalism. The jury system doesn't work if the only allegiance is to the clan. And everyone hates Whitey.
I want to hear Michael Savage admit he was wrong when he AG meant that there would be an acquital.
...who made some pretty outrageous statements after the verdict was given.
Yep. I think it was Vang's daughter that said "I'm glad he did what he did."
!!!!!!!!
I want to hear Michael Savage admit he was wrong when he said that the jury bein g chosen from Madison WI and the liberal female AG, all meant that there would be an acquital.
I must be living in a "small circle". What is a Hmong?
Until this happened....Nobody cared!!!
I never heard of them. Do you mean that the reports of "anti-Hmong" feeling in WI, especially in the area of Meteor, is the usual bs from the media? Was there some kind of anti-Hmong feeling prior to the murders, And, again, what and who are the Hmong?
Too bad WI doesn't have death by firing squad, they might have to issue a lot of ammo and wait all day.
"I want to hear Michael Savage admit he was wrong when he said that the jury being chosen from Madison WI and the liberal female AG, all meant that there would be an acquital."
The jury pool was from DANE County, not just Madison, WI. And the AG was the PROSECUTOR. Why would she want an acquittal? She desperately needed this win to shore up her shakey reputation as she was arrested last year in a state vehicle for drunk driving. If Wisconsin's 'Top Cop' couldn't get a conviction on a slam-dunk, no-brainer case like this, she deserves to be disbarred.
Our local AM radio just yanked Savage, who makes my skin crawl. They replaced him with Sean Hannity, who also makes my skin crawl but for a different set of reasons. ;)
I think the whole family should be deported back where they came from.
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