Robert Blake found NOT guilty!

[Kruzin]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7211376/?GT1=6305

Old man got away with it....

[KvHagedorn]

Well, stranger things have happened. Don't you know anything? Celebrities are too important to be held accountable for their actions in America. Most Americans are just a bunch of stupid morons who need some sort of makeshift pantheon of bullshit personalities to worship, and would never convict a GOD. By all means, pay them $20 million a year, too, so we can nod vicariously when they talk about buying a Bentley like we mention buying a pair of socks. I just want to hit this 95% of the population that are the babbling masses I'm talking about. They are unworthy of the democratic system they enjoy, and deserve the oligarchy they've wound up with. Too bad the 5% of us with more than one brain cell have to get dragged down with them into this tyranny of stupidity.

[Dr Mordrid]

It's obvious you haven't been following the facts of this case and are operating on supposition, just like the Americans you so dispise.

Actually his acquittal shouldn't be a suprise to those who have followed the case objectively. What you have here was a case heavy on supposition and suspicion and very light on facts and physical evidence.

Yes; two former stuntmen said Blake had propositioned them to kill Bonnie Lee Blakely. One had a pending criminal charge he was going to get out of for testifying and the other openly discussed on the stand that he was being pursued by aliens and was on cocaine during his testimony

Also troubling was that neither of these people could get their stories straight. The "facts" they related changed throughout the trial, making their testimonies not at all credible.

Strike one.

On the "meat" charge of murder it was plain that she was shot in his car, but by a gun different than the liscensed one Blake had in his posession (and by the way had been left in the restaurant they had just left). It wasn't just not this gun but not any of his other guns.

Also troublesome was the fact that the amount of nitrates (aka: gunshot residue) found on Blakes clothing and hands was consistant with having entered the car and checking her body but not with actually firing a gun.

Strike two.

It soon became obvious from even the prosecutions evidence that Blakely had been a grifter (con-woman) who had enough enemies wanting to kill her that Blake became only one of dozens of potential killers. Since they dined at this same restaurant several nights a week anyone wanting to kill her just had to wait for the right moment, which apparently presented itself.

Strike three. Reasonable doubt achieved.

The jury found him not guilty on the murder charge and one solicitation of murder charge and was hung at 11 for acquittal and 1 for conviction on the other solicitation of murder charge. The judge then dismissed the second solicitation chage.

The writing was on the wall for this case way back when Blake was first arrested. In an appeal that went all the way to the State Supreme Court he was eventually granted bail in a murder case (very rare), and the apellate courts ruling made it plain they had very grave doubts about the prosecutions case.

By the time of the State Supreme Court ruling he had spent a year in jail for a crime he was later to be acquitted of.

In other words: what you have here was an over-reaching prosecutor trying to make his bones with a faded celebrity.

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

Nailing celebrities is, in fact, a sport for DA's in this country. The PUBLIC always gets very polarized on the matter.

Take OJ - Black America felt that no matter WHAT the facts were, he was innocent. DNA? Ahh, that's mumbo jumbo pseudo-science. THe case SHOULD have been a slam-dunk. If the LAPD hadn't been UTTERLY inept in handling the DNA, it would have been.

Look at Michael Jackson (ongoing). The DA on that holds press conferences to telecast his every move. They're PURPOSELY trying it in the court of public opinion, which is shameful to say the least - because if Jackson DIDN'T do it, his already less-than-stellar reputation will be ruined forever.

So you can't in any way claim that celebrities get to be above the law here. That's a superficial supposition made just by glancing at the outcome of past trials. A little analysis tells a much different story.

I'm glad Blake got off. The entire supposition here seemed to be:

"He's famous, and he likes guns - so he MUST be a murderer!"

[KvHagedorn]

Yes.. I read the story. Just wanted to vent about it. I still doubt that if, say, Robert DeNiro actually popped somebody and went to trial that he would be convicted. What sort of idiot just leaves his gun in a restaurant, though?

[cjolley]

Yes.. I read the story. Just wanted to vent about it. I still doubt that if, say, Robert DeNiro actually popped somebody and went to trial that he would be convicted. What sort of idiot just leaves his gun in a restaurant, though?

Someone who want's to prove his gun was not with him.
Or, maybe the resturants of LA are filled with the abandoned guns of Rober Blake.

I don't mind his aquital becasue I wouldn't want me to be in danger of a wrongfull conviction based on such thin "evidence".
What happens to him individualy is of no consern to me at all.

[Gurm]

Oh, I'm not glad he was acquitted because I think he was blameless. At the very least, he's a careless gun-toting schmuck. Did he kill her or pay someone to? I have no idea. That's the beauty of our justice system - unless you can PROVE that he did it, you have to let him go. Does this meean guilty men sometimes get let go? Yup. But it also means that LESS innocent men get locked up. (Not none, just LESS.)

[cjolley]

I aught to report you for capitalizing the word "LESS" and then using it incorrectly

[Gurm]

I aught to report you for capitalizing the word "LESS" and then using it incorrectly

Ok, be sure to misspell "ought" in your report.

Grammar police need to keep up appearances, y'know. Kinda like when the real police pull you over for a broken taillight but one of their high beams is out?

[cjolley]

I sent aught a report.

PS I was just trying to beat KvH to it.