Master's Lawyer In The Hotseat
FORT COLLINS — Tim Masters' former lawyer this morning disputed the notion that he still is bound to "zealously represent" the man who is serving a life sentence for the Feb. 11, 1987, murder of Peggy Hettrick.
Lawyer Nathan Chambers also said several times that he had been assured by prosecutors before Masters' trial that they had turned over everything they had to the defense.
Chambers returned to the witness stand for the sixth day in a series of hearings being conducted as part of Masters' fight for a new trial — and this morning he faced, for the first time, cross-examination from the special prosecutors in the case.
In testimony stretching over five days, Chambers had repeatedly said that Fort Collins police and Larimer County prosecutors had repeatedly withheld from him information that has recently come to light — information that he said would have helped him win an acquittal for Masters.
Rocky mountain News
7 comments:
I'm currently a law student at Notre Dame, but i've recenty increasingly mortified by the dearth of good evidence by which some people are convicted. This man was convicted on the circumstancial evidence of 3 primarily points
1) that he owned multiple knives with blades longer than 5 inches used in hte killings
2) He had a violent nature, as evidenced by his drawings
3) The killing occured on his mother's anniversery, and his violence could have been trigerred by an association with his mother's death.
4) He allegedly paused while walking in the vicinity of the body, but reported nothing to the police.
While i have my doubt that this amounts to the defendant's guilt beyond reasonable doubt, if evidence was withheld potentially working against particularly the defendant's supposed violent nature, the prosecution's circumstancial evidence case may have been considerably weakened.
If the prosecutor truly withheld the evidence that an unsucessful sting in which the police tried to elicit a violent reaction in association with the defendant's mother (as reported by cnn.com http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/09/masters.case/index.html), I think there is no doubt, especially in a case such as this entirely reliant on circumstancial evidence (of a dubious nature), a new trial would be entirely warranted. If hte police entirely failed to link points 2) and 3), then failed to report their failure to the defense, the defense was deprived of their ability to establish that the defendant did not associate violent thoughts in connection with his mother's death. This is a travesty of justice.
made a mistake above--said 3 points orignially, then realized the prosecution had an additional point and added another argument, but forgot to revise that the prosecution had, in fact 4 points.
I am not commenting on this case in particular. Remember one thing folks. For every innocent person in prison there is a guilty person running free.
This and 100s other cases point to the fact that the USA judicial system is an absolute piece of crap. This system needs a complete remake and among other things should get rid-off barbaric death penalty for ever.
The problem with our system is that too many prosecutors are more interested in winning than in finding the truth. It's become a numbers game, and the higher the number of convictions, the better the DA's record looks.
There is a reason why GOD said 2 eyewitnesses just because somebody doesn't act the way you think they should doesn't mean they're guilty of anything we are all different and we respond differently in all situations also just because he stopped in the area where she was doesn't mean he seen her I know I could have tripped on her and not seen her i don't always see whats there people walk in front of me i don't see them who knows if anything was wrong with this boys head and the fact that the anniverary of his mothers death was near that is enough to mess up a 15 yr olds mind I don't know that he he's innocent but I know I would never convict anybody because of they're reactions or lack there of but I know that the guilty will answer one day soon because there is one who knows all.
5
去年下半年以來的 酒店工作金融海嘯，不僅讓市井小民壓力沉重， 酒店上班就連專營高檔客層的精品商家，也都面臨不小的壓力， 寒假打工
甚至無力負擔商圈的房租，市場瀰漫著一股悲觀的氣氛。
隨著股市、房市 暑假打工的熱絡氣象，外界預期一些辛苦經營的精品店面、 酒店PT商圈，將順勢而起，不過，熟悉大台北商圈的欣元商仲總經理焦文華直言，目 禮服酒店前精品業者的經營還相當艱困，景氣反轉的力道並不如外界預期。
焦文華分析，精品商圈 兼差的經營，確實還是面臨消費力不足的困境。目前消費者物價指數已連續兩個月負成長（六、七月份），具體反映出消費力衰退的現象，高檔的珠寶、手錶、服飾等精品市場感受更深，部分店家業績 打工，更是過去高峰期的三分之一，業者稱得上是「苦撐待變」。
永慶店面事業部 台北酒店經紀經理李元鳳表示，精品商圈在金融海 酒店經紀嘯中確實面臨很大的壓力，且當時都無法預期景氣何時好轉 酒店打工，耗費數百萬元的裝潢成本，更迫使業者無法輕言放棄。以當時的天母SOGO商圈為例，就算距離天母SOG 酒店兼差O百貨的開幕已經不到半年的時間，但周邊店面的空置率仍高達二十％，顯示屋主與業者都存有濃厚的觀望心態，這 酒店兼職與過去市場會提前反映利多現象有顯著差異。
雖然精品業者辛苦經營，但是從喝花酒永慶店面事業部的統計數據來看，五大精品商圈的空置率在今年上半年皆有明顯下降，但是積極展店的業種，卻是以餐飲、零售等微利事業體，精品商圈交際應酬的「精品氣氛」，已逐漸稀釋。
不僅精品商圈的味道變了，過去勇於投資精品商圈的粉味投資客，追價的力道同樣大不如前。李元鳳表示，以台北市最廣為人知的「晶華酒店商圈」為例酒店喝酒，售價從二○○八年曾出現的每坪三百萬元的高檔價格，到今年平均一百八十萬至兩百五十萬元的水準，雖然店租行情波動不大，但也反映出目前買方出價的「保守」。
徐佳馨表示，從空置率數據來看，與去年狀況極差的第四季相比 酒店，精品商圈的空置率都出現明顯的下降，但由於各界對於景氣是否反彈仍有疑慮，因此就算租金與售價已開始蠢動，但是否能夠真實反映市場實況，仍存有許多變數。
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