Double Jeopardy
As we recall, Lemrick Nelson was acquitted of state murder charges in the death of Yankel Rosenbaum during the 1991 Crown Heights riots. He was then convicted at a federal trial for violating Rosenbaum's civil rights, but an appeals court overturned the conviction on the basis that the trial judge improperly interfered with jury composition. Now that he is getting his retrial, he has changed his tactics. He now admits that he stabbed Rosenbaum, since he's safe from a murder charge, but is claiming that he did it because he was drunk, not because Rosenbaum was a Jew. Should this defense be successful, he will walk on the civil rights charges too, since they are predicated on his having stabbed Rosenbaum because of Rosenbaum's religion. Feh.
Comments
This reminds me of the Klaus Barbe case in France.
He could not be prosecuted for war crimes as the statue of limitations had run out. The French charged him with crimes against humanity that did not have a statue of limitations. You could be charged with crimes against humanity if you concentrated your killing against a certain class of people. (in his case-Jews)
His defense was that he did not concentrate his executions on a class of people, he executed indiscriminately. His lawyer showed that he executed so many people that he was not selective at all.
It did not work.
Posted by: Jake | April 30, 2003 07:03 PM