Acquitted man says he's guilty

mysteriew

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A man acquitted in court nearly 15 years ago of murdering a 2-year-old boy has confessed to police that he was actually guilty of the crime.

But because of double jeopardy — meaning a person cannot stand trial twice for the same crime — he will walk away without serving any prison time for the homicide.
Michael Lane, now 41, stood trial in 1991 on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Paul "PJ" Eugene Watts. Lane was baby-sitting the boy for his live-in girlfriend, Jennifer Watts, now 32, at her Salt Lake home while she went to church. When she returned, she found the toddler unresponsive in his crib.
In court, the Utah Medical Examiner's Office testified PJ received at least seven blows to his head and died as a result.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635177435,00.html
 
oh my gosh, this is one i havent heard before.....
 
He did horrid things to that little boy. That was a tough article to read.

Two things come to mind. First of all, the double jeopardy law needs to change. I have never looked up the reasoning behind that, but surely things have changed since then?

Secondly, I hope that prosecutors can find something to get him on. Even something like perjury, if he testified? Child abuse?
 
Double jeapordy has a very good reason behind it - without it, the police can harass someone they don't like or wish to believe is guilty by continually putting them on trial, even after they are found not guilty.

But I wonder if there's a way to say that this doesn't fall into that - they don't need to put him on trial, they just need to sentence him... wonder if that would work.
 
From the article, it seems that they are looking into what other charges they might be able to file. But there is going to be something else that will affect this. Statue of limitations. Murder doesn't have a statute of limitations, but most other charges do.
According to the article, Lane wasn't aware that there was a double jepordy clause (I find that hard to believe) but it is funny that he waited so long to clear his concious that there could be problems with the statute of limitations.
 
mysteriew said:
A man acquitted in court nearly 15 years ago of murdering a 2-year-old boy has confessed to police that he was actually guilty of the crime.

But because of double jeopardy — meaning a person cannot stand trial twice for the same crime — he will walk away without serving any prison time for the homicide.
Michael Lane, now 41, stood trial in 1991 on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Paul "PJ" Eugene Watts. Lane was baby-sitting the boy for his live-in girlfriend, Jennifer Watts, now 32, at her Salt Lake home while she went to church. When she returned, she found the toddler unresponsive in his crib.
In court, the Utah Medical Examiner's Office testified PJ received at least seven blows to his head and died as a result.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635177435,00.html
Now how in the hell did this guy get off in the first place???????????????????? He was babysitting??????????????????
 
Details said:
Double jeapordy has a very good reason behind it - without it, the police can harass someone they don't like or wish to believe is guilty by continually putting them on trial, even after they are found not guilty.

But I wonder if there's a way to say that this doesn't fall into that - they don't need to put him on trial, they just need to sentence him... wonder if that would work.
Thanks, Details. So an example would be that L.A. police might have been able to harrass O.J. Simpson for murder all these years? :p

I think there just has to be another way about this. I mean, the guy CONFESSED. So maybe the law should be that if you confess to it, even after being found NG or Innocent...then you have to go through the whole process again.

All I know is that it's a shame that the baby is dead and this creep is walking God's green earth freely. I hope his conscience really bothers him the rest of his life.:razz:
 
Buzzm1 said:
Now how in the hell did this guy get off in the first place???????????????????? He was babysitting??????????????????
Either this article or another one talks about how the mom of the murdered toddler didn't believe he did it, and testified to that at his murder trial, which may have really swayed the jury. Now that she knows, she can't believe that she testified for him. But yes, he was home alone with the child, babysitting. I don't think he even bothered to make up an "intruder" story or anything.
 
Taximom said:
Thanks, Details. So an example would be that L.A. police might have been able to harrass O.J. Simpson for murder all these years? :p
Yep! Which is nice, but then there's the murder down here where the local police decided it had to be her brother - did some sleep deprivation and got a confession from him (kinda), and spent the next 10 years trying to find some way to convict him, ignoring all other evidence and suspects. Finally, they were forced to pay attention to the violent nutty homeless guy in the neighborhood, who was looking to kill a girl he knew that looked just like the victim - and had her blood on the pants he was wearing that night, that they had confiscated, but never bothered to test (being so sure it must be the brother). The DA from then is still sure it was the brother! It was the Tuite case, as I recall, wasn't that long ago that they finally convicted the real killer.

It's all just nuts, the police and DA were just so determined not to admit they were wrong, they couldn't even look when they had the killer right under their noses. They'd have tried the innocent brother a million times (they did appeal plenty) if they could have.
 

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