Victims' Buttons Warrant New Trial
A murder conviction has been overturned by a California appeals court because the victim's family wore buttons with an image of the victim throughout the trial. The jury may have been swayed by the display.
This is an extraneous influence calculated to sway the emotions of the jury. It's justly prohibited by law. Blame this one on the trial judge and the prosecutors. The defense objected to the buttons during trial and the judge refused to tell the family to remove them. The prosecutors should have told the family this is inappropriate. They gambled that they'd get away with this display in this age of victims' rights and they lost.
The appeals court majority said the case was comparable to two others in which convictions were overturned: a 1976 Supreme Court case in which the defendant was forced to wear prison clothing and shackles in court, and a 1990 Ninth Circuit case in which spectators at a rape trial wore buttons reading "Women Against Rape.'' In both cases, the court said, a message of guilt was conveyed to the jury.
In this case, where the only issue was the claim of self-defense, "the buttons essentially 'argue' that Studer was the innocent party and that the defendant was necessarily guilty,'' said Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
Now the taxpayers will have to foot the bill for a new trial. That's what happens when one side tries to bend the rules and play the sympathy card. [link via How Appealing.]
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