Appellate court overturns conviction in 2001 UW arson (Briana Waters, member of The Family)

Seattle Times ^ | September 15, 2010 | John de Leon

[jazusamo]

 

Briana Waters

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of Briana Waters in the 2001 arson of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture.

The 32-year-old Californian was sentenced in June 2008 to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $6 million in restitution by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Burgess. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Burgess made several errors that raised questions about the fairness of her trial, The Associated Press is reporting. The panel said the judge should not have admitted certain articles advocating violence as evidence, and should have done more to ensure that news coverage of an unrelated arson did not influence the jury, according to The Associated Press.

To read the ruling, click here.

Waters, a violin teacher, is one of five activists accused of the UW arson, which prosecutors say caused more than $6 million in damage while destroying rare plants, books and years of research. She was convicted of two counts of arson...

[Lurker]

Try the bitch again. Then sentence her to 20 years.

[jazusamo]

Ping!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

No Ninth Circuit Federal Court has ever tried a criminal it could not favor.

[jazusamo]

Try the bitch again. Then sentence her to 20 years.

Absolutely!

[Navy Patriot]

The Ninth Circus Court noted that the evidence was not gathered by known reliable and Constitutional sources, like red light cameras, that have convicted so many REAL criminals.

[SeaHawkFan]

U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Burgess is now dead, but he was widely regarded as one of the most ignorant, lazy, and incompetent judges in the entire Federal judiciary.

[jazusamo]

Hopefully when she’s retried it’ll be before a decent no nonsense law and order judge. I followed her trial and she’ll be convicted again, IMO.

[traditional1]

The next trial will get an OJ-style jury; a bunch of Berkley campus radicals, and find her not guilty (they only need ONE to be planted on the jury to cause a hung jury).

That's the way it works in the Judicial System today; the jury is hand-picked using jury consultants, to favor the defendent as happened in the Blago trial (an Obama sympathizer made sure the trial didn't go to Appeal so the Messiah was protected from Discovery).

[george76]

[tubebender]

Has a verdict by the 9th ever been upheld at the Supreme Court?

[editor-surveyor]

The west coast’s free circus.

[editor-surveyor]

This nincompoop’s father signed up on FR just to grouse at us for dissing his marxist daughter.

[jazusamo]

Like father like daughter I guess, seems half a brain runs in the family.

[tubebender]

He did what???? I missed that...

[editor-surveyor]

He signed up on FR after the trial to whine about what a wonderful daughter she was.

[Grampa Dave]

Tough question, and I don’t know.

[Seadog Bytes]