The official Jayson Williams was found to be not guilty of manslaughter thread

I know nothing about the case, have paid attention to not one press release since the initial charges, and dont really care...


...so, by all means, here I go.

Actually part of my apathy is derived from a series of conflicting realities, none of them fair, and a feeling of impotence regarding them:


1) Black men are more likely to be charged than white men.
2) Rich men are much, much more likely to get off or receive the benefit of justice's doubt than non rich men.
3) Celebrities are more likely to get polarized judicial attention: ie either 'make an example' of them, or a walk/slap on the wrist.


All of these completely abort the sense of justice having any real role in the outcome of a case like this, so I just une out. Same for Jacko, etc.

 

1) I don't want to come off as racist, but just as many white men would be charged if they committed just as many crimes.
2) That would be due to the affordability of attorneys, in my opinion. A public defender is paid a flat rate by the state, correct? They won't work as hard as an attorney who will work hard to find as much evidence and every loophole possible to prove his client's innocence.
3) Agreed. Some should be severely punished, like Jacko, but some are just being screwed like Martha Stewart, in my opinion.

 

Its funny you summed up part of the reason for number 1 with your attitude in number three.

 

Yeah, because race and child molestation and insider trading are all intertwined, right? That's exactly what was said. Don't twist it.

Agreed. Some should be severely punished, like Robert Blake, but some are just being screwed like Diana Ross , in my opinion.

Would you like to start an argument for the sake or arguing again?

 

By the way, you're wrong about this. But you're just talking out of your ass, its understandable.

 

I'm not going to waste the time to feed your ego by arguing with you over something as little as this. You just want to argue because you feel you must disagree on some point with a conservative, therefore I will not let you have an argument with me.

 

With the evidence in this case, (witnesses seeing Jayson Williams kill a man with a shot gun and then trying to cover it up), anybody would have been charged no matter what race.

BTW, I do think that this was an accident, but Jayson should see some jail time for trying to cover it up. Not to mention the involuntary manslaughter charge. The idea of a faulty trigger is for the people that believe OJ is innocent, and that police planted his DNA all over the crime scene, in his car, and on his glove.

 

No no, OJ was innocent. All that blood was planted, remember? Johnny Cochrane just opened up a new office to his law firm up here in the DC area last year or so. He has the occasional commercial out; the ones where the lawyer blabs about this and that. I've always thought he should say something like, "Look here DC! I'm not going to feed you any bull. You remember OJ? I got him off the hook and we all knew he was guilty! Come see me. I'm Johnny Cochrane."

 

this is not a black white issue my god...

he was big man showing off his stupid guns and one went off

the reason he should serve time is that he tried to make it look like a suicide which is horrible.

him covering up his actions and lying is grounds enough that he should spend time in the can

 

I didn't mean to imply that it was necessarily a determinant in this case; I meant that, knowing it could be, in addition to the others, I have lost a lot of faith and almost all interest in the workings of our justice system, and don't even pay enough attention to know the particulars. When it is, or is quite likely to be degree, about race, wealth, celebrity, etc. to any degree, it is no longer at all about justice.

Additionally, I am somewhat put off by the growing cult of celebrity. When I see the likes of Paris Hilton, who essentially became famous for being...famous as someone giving me one of the thousands of reason to watch the NBA, I despair. Reality how people who are thereafter 'celebrities', etc. Just bores and annoys me. So I also lack the desire to see into the everyday lives of famous people, which is, I suspect, much of the appeal of the Jacko/JW /Martha etc. trials.

But it's mostly that your determined guilt or innocence is as much or more dependant on your income, your race, etc. as your actual guilt that turns me off the whole shooting match.

The day O.J was arrested, another black man was arrested in the same county, for the same charge, with the same lack of eyewitnesses, only he was neither rich or a celebrity. He was already serving his life sentance before O.J. had even entered a plea...

 

It is simply undeniable that race plays into verdicts at trial. Undeniable. Other "soft" or social factors play in as well...including how well the jury likes your attorney by the end of trial.

 

My impression as well, regarding this case - obviously, I was not in the court room 24/7, but...this verdict is pretty inexplicable. Who was in the jury?

 

i don't know who was in the jury....haven't heard that, yet. and i really haven't been following this case very closely at all.

 

Its nothing to argue about because you were wrong. Anyway I don't think this is a black and white issue but you wrote an idiotic statement that needed to be corrected. Your welcome.

 

First off, this is not a racial issue. Who cares what color Jayson Williams is? I don't. He blew off a man's head with a shotgun, folks! Even though a jury said he didn't do it, we all know just like with OJ, he did it. It's pretty goddamned suspicious when you try to alter evidence and make it look like suicide. But I think the problem here is with black juries who want to "stick it to the man" by allowing him to go free with a little slap on the pee-pee and "Don't do it again." They wanted to save OJ's ass and did so regardless of his obvious guilt. But it also shows justice in this country can easily be bought. I'm not pleased with the verdict because it allows yet another killer to walk free sans punishment. That folks is wrong, no matter what your color.

 

i agree with you that making decisions like this based on race are just flat out wrong. are you sure that's what happened here? have you read the racial composition of the jury? i just haven't seen anything about that yet. but, admittedly, i haven't read much.

 

Cash has a lot to do with it as well. Even more so in this case.

I think the color green plays a bigger role than black or white.

 

When, in reality, either one should not play a role at all...and, with all due respect, I think there are some other legal systems in the world where they DO play less of a role than in the US.

 

madmax.. not sure of the composition of the jury, but they interviewed some on a morning show today ... there was at least one african american, another minority (not sure what european, asian country he was from so I won't even try to guess).. that was out of the few they had on..

Unfourtunately I think race does always play some role. Some people might be racist against blacks, and I'm sure that there have been times that "because they feel blacks have gotten bad treatment in past trials they want to get their fellow african american off" .. just as I'm sure there have been cases of "getting the the fellow white guy off" and "helping another poor person" or "helping another whatever".. it only takes one non guilty opinion for someone to get off so if you have someone who is shallow enough to judge it based on race then it could happen.. All you can do I guess is try and get a jury that you think will be the least biased, but I believe both sides have a say in the jury so it is hard to get one that has no bias at all.. even the most non racist people at times have the tendency to think of their race as "their own".. the ones with some sense are able to overlook that though when deciding on a verdict.. just as it is a natural tendency to think of someone of your same sex as being "more like you" it also seems to be a tendency to think of someone of the same race as being "more like you", but there is no excuse to allow that to cause a person to spend their life in jail or to not spend their life in jail.. I just don't know what you do about it other than trying to get a jury that seems like decent people...

It's a long process that hopefully is getting better.. we retired a guys jersey at my university this year.. the first african american player in the SEC and it was hard to believe that it was the late 60s and early 70s when he played.. not that long ago at all...

My point is a lot of the college aged kids today couldn't even picture having complete segragation etc, whereas this guy played in the late 60s.. not much older than my father.. a lot of the jury pool was around during the times when segragation etc still occured more often and that is part of the problem.. as you move from generation to generation I think you get less and less people who think basing things on race is acceptable.. I'd venture to say a LOT less of the college aged kids think racism is okay than the older people in the population .. just because they grew up when it was considered more acceptable and it is hard to change the way you saw things when you were young..

hopefully that made some sense.. I suppose I need to go pack now so I can get out of Nashville for the summer... I think I'll yell some davey crockett quotes out my window.. (the ones he said when he left tenn for texas).. houston within a week..