Posted on 08/19/2009 12:11:11 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Trial is under way in Knoxville for the first of four people charged in the kidnapping, rape and killing of a young couple more than two years ago.
As court convened Monday, the judge read each of the 38 counts against 26-year-old Letalvis Cobbins. His attorney, Scott Green, responded by entering pleas.
Green said his client pleaded guilty to five counts of facilitating robbery or theft in the carjacking that set the crimes into motion in 2007. He also pleaded guilty to one count of rape. To the remaining counts, Green responded "not guilty."
Cobbins — of Lebanon, Ky. — is also charged with murder and kidnapping in the killings of 23-year-old Christopher Newsom and his 21-year-old girlfriend Channon Christian.
When Christopher Newsom's bound, shot and burned body was identified the day after he was killed in 2007, authorities warned his mother the sight would be too gruesome for her to see.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
At this level of depravity I think the interpretation of “cruel and unusual punishment” could be put on a sliding scale. Unspeakable acts must be punished, if justice is to be had. Setting a savage up for life with three squares, tv, a basketball court, free medical care, etc. is not punishment for these atrocities.
A prior engagement beckons (Alice Springs has arrived) so I’ll quickly sum up my thought. It would not be cruel and
should not be unusual to just toss animals like this, after a fair trial of course, into a pit of starving jackals - maybe on a bungee cord to make it more interesting for national broadcast. Just a thought. ;-)
Well, I'm just using common sense and experience. This crime was anything but random, as evidenced by numerous factors, not least of which was the demographics of the crime scene area mentioned previously.
I don't support hate crimes statutes, but I also loathe the efforts made to make every heinous black on white crime a "robbery gone wrong," devoid of any racial animus.
????? Knoxville keeps putting one of the more Conservative Congressmen back in office. This is Jimmy Duncan's district. Yes UT campus is Liberal but Oak Ridge is likely far more Liberal then Knoxville. I used to shop in Oak Ridge mainly but die to their Camera Light Nazi mentality have changed those plans. Generally I shop in North Knoxville real late at night and feel reasonably safe doing so but still carry just as I did shopping in in Oak Ridge.
A lot of Knoxville's killings are imported killers and this one was no exception either. They weren't locals or the ring leaders weren't. I believe they came from Memphis.
The Lilylid's killers were from Kentucky. That was a family killed just east of Knoxville returning from a church function. One child survived. The killers were from Kentucky that time a bunch of kids.
There's parts in Knoxville I avoid any time of day and where the two were found is one of them. It was a rough area even in the 1970's but I suspect they were abducted elsewhere maybe in a near by residential neighborhood near the mall. Back roads it's less than a 5 minute drive.
very, very well said TPBA. let those WHITE bleeding heart liberals in this country, the ‘white guilt’ limp dicks who refuse to acknowledege race at the forefront in this case, (or numerous other black on white cases), have or watch one of THEIR OWN family loved ones tortured for DAYS to death in the most vile, inhumane, sadistic fashion by BLACK savages like these animals in the very same sort of setting or scenario and then stand up and tell us all race had NOTHING to do with it, a ‘random’ attack, ‘wrong place at the wrong time’, robbery gone bad. etc. etc. what a crock. I do not support all of this ‘hate crime’ crap either since it is not considered a ‘hate crime’, according to Eric Holder, if a black attacks a white. I do not believe in my long life I have ever been as enraged over a story as I am this one. race had EVERYTHING to do with it and anyone who thinks it was not the driving motivation of these bastards, is living in some damn fantasy land OR has not spent anytime in any kind of proximity to ‘em, over hearing to their white hate talk, watching their actions etc. I have freaking had it with these savages who are ruining this country daily. just my 2 cents all.....flame away if you want.
I agree. The punishment should fit the crime.
I sort of agree.
1. Other than (perhaps) sexual gratification, the ONLY motivation for this crime is HATE.
2. Probably, absent some connection not stated, nothing personal. Any victims would do.
3. Racial hatred may or may not have been involved.
4. Adding “hate crime” to the list of horrible crimes seems petty, even silly.
5. They should be punished to the fullest extent ot the law, for the crimes actually committed.
DG
Why is skin color relevant, regardless of whether the sick predators are white or black? With a rape/murder, I’m all for the death penalty, and I don’t care which little box gets checked on the death certificate.
ping
Do you know the definition of a hate crime?
“Police, prosecutors and the victims’ families maintain that Newsom and Christian were not victims of a hate crime, rather victims of a carjacking that went terribly awry.”
Are you kidding me? Terribly awry? The reporter who wrote that is as psycho as these perpa are.
Can you guys imagine Nancy Grace on her broom flying around CNN if the roles were reversed?
Well at least they weren’t ‘waterboarded’! (Big sarcasm... Prayers for the souls of these two beautiful young people who were so cruelly deprived of their lives by HATEFUL RACISTS!).
“The test of whether it should be treated as a hate crime would be to present the evidence to a prosecutor with the races reversed.”
Completely, totally, sadly the TRUTH!
And I do think I can understand why the parents of the victims, had they been given any say in the matter, might have preferred that some ridiculously bogus 'hate crime' statute not be applied here, lest this trial inevitably be turned into a super-politicized show trial where their children's murders would invariably become secondary considerations in all the trumped-up hoopla.
I don't think that's stupid at all as many others here seem to believe.
Applying that charge would only give the defense attorneys the opening to break out the violins and present evidence of every daggum racial indignity their clients had ever suffered in their lives which might have led them to 'hate' white people and the trial would then become a full-blown media spectacle, not just about achieving justice for the 2 innocent victims & the grotesquely savage brutality committed against them, but just as much a campaign for justice for the perps of these crimes & whatever racism they had endured in their sorry godforsaken lives too.
Why should the prosecution & parents hand over a gift-wrapped ready-made excuse to these animals' defense attorneys to help mitigate their clients' evil conduct & minimize their guilt? Why should they help these bloodthirsty pigs paint themselves as victims in this trial? Why should they help the perps to deflect attention from & diminish in any way at all the sheer savage inhumanity of the crimes they committed by giving credence to some cockamamie concocted abuse excuse which helps them rationally justify even in the smallest way to the jury what they did?
I'm quite sure these moms & dads are seeking justice for their kids, not validtion for Al Sharpton and the other architects of this whole stupid race-baiting 'hate crime' racket.
Now if, in a desperate effort to mitigate their clients' guilt, these perps' attorneys are stupid enough to step into the trap, allow their clients to admit under oath that their motivation was indeed hatred towards white people & in the process provide irrefutable concrete proof to the jury of a 'hate crime, I don't see why a hate crime statute violation couldn't be slapped onto their charge sheet by the judge himself after their confessions in his courtroom. I'm sure the parents & prosecutors wouldn't be too choked up about that.
But all the prosecutors have to do is show the jury the pictures of those two mutilated bodies to convince those 12 citizens of the pressing civic & moral imperative to permanently rid their community of these predators who by their actions have forfeited the right to walk freely amongst even the lowest members of the human race.
And if these parents are to achieve a genuinely satisfying, lasting justice for their kids for the inhumane atrocities which were committed against them, that's absolutely the only 'race issue' which should be trumped up for the jury's consideration by the prosecution at all during this trial, IMHO.
However, you take at face value the statement that this was simply a “car-jacking gone terribly awry.” This is an evasion. What was it, exactly, that made it go “awry”? What was it about the victims that made their killers decide that it would be good fun to rape and torture them for several days rather than just rob them?
But you seem to think, absent a full confession of their motives by the perpetrators, this it is somehow unwarranted to arrive at a conclusion that the race of the victims had a good deal to do with the manner of their deaths.
I think that is terribly naive, and betrays a lack of common sense.
They'd have been already if the true victims were kin of mine...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.