RIP Mayor-Elect Gerald Washington
Posted on 12/31/2006 12:04:59 PM PST by LdSentinal
RIP Mayor-Elect Gerald Washington
Good grief, what an awful thing. Prayers for him and his family.
If it's murder, it's an outrage.
"found the body of a black male with a single gun shot wound. The body was later identified as Washington. The Calcasieu Coronor's Office is performing an autopsy to determine the cause of death. "
Um, gunshot????
It is awful! I'd read about it on a local news website, it said he was a Vietnam veteran. Just terrible!
Someone can correct me if I am wrong but the primary reason for the determination of death in a autopsy when murder is suspected is to prove it beyond doubt.
Otherwise, it would be a field day for the defendant's attorney if a suspect was ever caught...
That would be my guess, considering they found a body with a single gunshot wound, dead.
You're correct. In every suspicious death, the prosecution has to have someone who can testify as to the cause.
Found in a parking lot with a single gun shot wound.
Looks like an execution to me.
I don't recall recently of another elected official being murdered.
Then, they would "confirm" the cause of death; we can already determine what it was without the autopsy. The journalist must be fresh out of high school.
you mean to prove beyond doubt that he is really dead? I still want my share of the 90,000 frozen clams from the La. Senator. I wonder why I never hear anything about this?
Think lake Chares and casinos.
Gunshot room to the head and the gun is left at the scene? This guy does not sound like he'd kill himself. Hmm...
Probably so but it's possible a victim could die of other causes and a gunshot wound used to cover it up. Weird things do happen as we saw with Vince Foster so I guess they are just doing their job in checking everything out.
Close. To prove he was murdered and how. Otherwise any defendant attorney worth his salt can sow reasonable doubt with the jury. And if they find the murder weapon, they can prove that particular weapon caused the victim's death.
Look at it this way, suppose no autopsy was done. And the police caught a suspect with the weapon that fired a bullet. I know it stretches credibility but what happens if the defendant's attorney argued that the victim died of a heart attack prior to being shot? At most, the defendant would be guilty of shooting a dead person.
Catch the drift? During the autopsy, they look at EVERYTHING. To eliminate any other causes of death to arrive at a singular conclusion that the victim must have died after being shot.
There was a police chief in Georgia a few years ago IIRC.
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