Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by vorpalhex | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

vorpalhex

The guy:

+ Went to jail for abusing his kids and wife

+ Got out, was arrested for beating his pregnant wife again

+ Got charged again for beating a kid

+ Showed up at a hospital with a dead kid claiming she fell to death from a bed

The kid who died had detached retinas, bruises and scrapes all over her shoulders and heads, and died of a hit to the head so severe her brain swelled.

The defense and Innonce Projects claim is that this could have been caused by.. the hospital giving aid.

And every court has ruled that this defense is entirely unreasonable and unlikely.

The girl was TWO YEARS old. She was beaten black and blue. She had a history of being beaten black and blue by a man who had a history of beating people.

Sorry, he is no longer fit to live in civilized society. His fellow citizens request he be removed before he can beat yet another person.

View on HN

The capital murder conviction was based on postmortem findings that were regarded as pathognomonic of shaken baby syndrome and those signs are no longer considered reliable. The detective who led the original investigation now believes the man is innocent of the particular crime for which he faces execution. If the detective, with access to far more particulars in this case than any of us here is willing to say the pause button should be pressed, it’s worth re-examining.

The girls brain swelled until she died.

We really aren't debating the finer points of shaken baby syndrome. The girl was a toddler.

Two year olds don't die from falling out of bed. Not with detached retinas, scrapes on their shoulders and so on.

> Went to jail for abusing his kids and wife

> Got out, was arrested for beating his pregnant wife again

> Got charged again for beating a kid

This, as best as I can tell, is false. There was testimony from his ex-wife about violence during his murder trial, which is very different from your claims. His prior convictions were for writing bad checks and burglary; the sources I have read claim he has no violence in his prior criminal history.

Can you please substantiate what you are saying with a reliable source? Alternatively, can you retract the apparent falsehoods you're saying here?

(Not going to rebut the later stuff, which indeed are the facts in question on appeal).

Literally every single person brought to trial at this man's case claimed he was an abuser. Everybody. The wife, the kids, his own siblings. Multiple people testified that he had abused the little girl physically. Like, okay, maybe we don't think the mother's testimony is super reliable, but if literally every single person in your life calls you an abuser and says they've seen you abuse the kid, you're probably an abuser.

You only have to create the element of doubt for this man to not be charged. There is no doubt here.

lol, this is Texas justice, what an embarrassment to humanity

I was in jury selection for a case several years ago. Defense attorney is asking members of the jury if they would actually consider a minimum sentence, which for the case at hand of child sexual assault is a minimum sentence of six months.

A respondee, a man, maybe in his 40s, cowboy hat, used jeans, you know, clearly like fairly legit farm worker, rancher, something along those lines, stands up after he's called and goes "No, sir, I believe that child abusers should be hung from the neck until dead." Sits down.

If you are going to commit crime, Texas is the wrong place to do it.

I help violate Texas law every day, come and get me.

Please either support your original point or retract it. Don't try and gallop and change the goalposts.

You stated he was convicted for abusing his kids and wife repeatedly. It appears this never happened. Now you have a new set of assertions to refute. Either support or disavow your original words. Kthx.

I thought the death penalty was just for Murder 1, maybe 2 (or whatever it is called in Texas).

If all the other things are true, none relate to murder, but shows the guy does belong in prison or a mental ward.

So, the argument should be "did he shake is daughter and did that kill the child". I cannot answer that question, but without a 100% true answer I think they should at least delay it or change it to life. You know, the whole "reasonable doubt thing". Seems many experts do have doubt, so...

> Sorry, he is no longer fit to live in civilized society. His fellow citizens request he be removed before he can beat yet another person.

That can be achieved without barbarically ending his life.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com