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Small bit of good news in MA (self defense)
beantownshootah
Member Posts: 12,776 ✭✭✭
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ct/20050628/cr_ct/thoughgrantednewtrialharvardstudentfarfrombeingcleared
(Court TV) - Former Harvard grad student Alexander Pring-Wilson will be released from prison Friday. But he's not going home anytime soon, and with a lengthy appeals process and retrial ahead, he is far from being home-free.
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Pring-Wilson was convicted last year in the stabbing death of a Cambridge, Mass., teenager. He was granted a new trial Friday by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan based on a recent higher court decision that allows defendants who claim self-defense in murder trials to bring in evidence about the victim's alleged history of violence.
On Monday, Quinlan ordered the 27-year-old to be released July 1 from Bay State Correctional Center on $400,000 bail. His pending freedom has a few conditions.
The Colorado resident may not leave the state of Massachusetts without the court's permission; he must surrender his passport; he will be electronically monitored on house arrest and may only venture out for attorney or doctor visits; he must submit to random drug and alcohol testing; and he must check in weekly with the probation department.
"We're thrilled with having won a new trial and a bail order," defense attorney E. Peter Parker said. "We're not thrilled with the conditions of his bail."
Prosecutors announced that they intend to appeal the judge's retrial order.
Pring-Wilson was found guilty in October of voluntary manslaughter for the April 2003 death of 18-year-old Michael Colono.
The district attorney pushed for first-degree murder but, after deliberating 21 hours over five days, jurors voted for the lesser-included offense, saving the Harvard student a life sentence.
cont'd
(Court TV) - Former Harvard grad student Alexander Pring-Wilson will be released from prison Friday. But he's not going home anytime soon, and with a lengthy appeals process and retrial ahead, he is far from being home-free.
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Pring-Wilson was convicted last year in the stabbing death of a Cambridge, Mass., teenager. He was granted a new trial Friday by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina Quinlan based on a recent higher court decision that allows defendants who claim self-defense in murder trials to bring in evidence about the victim's alleged history of violence.
On Monday, Quinlan ordered the 27-year-old to be released July 1 from Bay State Correctional Center on $400,000 bail. His pending freedom has a few conditions.
The Colorado resident may not leave the state of Massachusetts without the court's permission; he must surrender his passport; he will be electronically monitored on house arrest and may only venture out for attorney or doctor visits; he must submit to random drug and alcohol testing; and he must check in weekly with the probation department.
"We're thrilled with having won a new trial and a bail order," defense attorney E. Peter Parker said. "We're not thrilled with the conditions of his bail."
Prosecutors announced that they intend to appeal the judge's retrial order.
Pring-Wilson was found guilty in October of voluntary manslaughter for the April 2003 death of 18-year-old Michael Colono.
The district attorney pushed for first-degree murder but, after deliberating 21 hours over five days, jurors voted for the lesser-included offense, saving the Harvard student a life sentence.
cont'd
Comments
The two locals who jumped this kid both had criminal records. In particular Rodrigues (the survivor who testified that his poor innocent defenseless cousin was inexplicably attacked by Harvard student) was convicted (not just accused) three times of assault and battery. Colono, the one who was stabbed, was a high school dropout with a criminal record of selling crack. (Harvard kid had a completely clean record).
Right after the incident, the survivor Rodriguez ran away, and then felt so "victimized" by the Harvard student who killed his cousin that instead of taking his dying cousin to the hospital, or going to the police to report what happened, he lied about what happened to his friends and family. Also, allegedly literally right before the incident in question he beat his girlfriend, though charges weren't filed.
Harvard kid was on foot and allegedly drunk at the time of the incident. Both locals and girlfriend were in their car. Event didn't happen inside the car. . .meaning the ones in the car left the car before the incident. You do the math about what happened.
To add insult to injury here, Cambridge MA is probably the most leftist spot on the East Coast. The locals do not like Harvard kids, whom they feel (perhaps with some justification) are spoiled elitist snobs. The jury (partly Hispanic and from the same community as the sweet innocent victim) was most certainly NOT a jury of this White kid from Colorado's peers.
And just in case you are wonding, Cambridge MA, does NOT issue CCW permits.
The irony here is that the leftist MA judiciary, let this kid off for a new trial on a technicality. Nice.
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."