TN - Chris Newsom, 23, & Channon Christian, 21, murdered, Knoxville, 6 Jan 2007 #10

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steelergirl said:
OK....potential stupid question alert!! Felony Murder charges...they do apply to G too right? Because he was at the scene of the crime and did nothing, same as Coleman? So technically they just have to place him at the scene for those charges? I feel like I should know the answer to that, but at the same time I'm not sure, so wanted to ask to be sure!

Suzi...welcome back girl!!! I'm glad you got your computer back! :)
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I believe according to law he was there and just as guilty, but leaving that to the jury is the hard part. I know he will get something I just don't think it will be death and I am not real sure about the life I would hope they would at least give him life, but it is just so hard to tell what a jury is thinking.....especially if they haven't been following the case. Then you have his lawyer and who knows what he is going to come up with Thomas was raised in a tough neighbor hood always taught to mind his own business........or he was scared for his life, that will be next.....Grrrr.

Glad your Computer is fixed Suzi !!
 
Not a stupid question at all, IMO. I've been trying to figure it out all night, because I'm afraid the pros case looks really weak, technically, if it is what it looks like. :sheesh:

Remember in his opening statement, the defense kept pounding on the need to meet several tests to qualify for and understand definitions of felony murder, criminal responsibility, and facilitation? I couldn't keep up with all of them, but he read the statute where it said that to be criminally responsible, being present is not enough. It said "a person must solicit, direct, aid, or attempt to aid in the commission of the crime."

And he said they have to find him guilty of all those 7 things, as part of the crime that was committed, right?

From what I'm gathering, the only crime TK and Price are even attempting to say he was guilty of those things for is the carjacking... and their reasoning is that he rode in the 4-Runner, so he benefited from the crime that way.

I really hope I'm wrong, because I don't see just riding once in the car afterward as quite the same as taking it as his own, like LD did with the tennis shoes... kwim?

I sure hope someone who understands law can help us out here... Prairie? :eek:

FWIW, this is interesting:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0458_0782_ZO.html
 
OK, here's this from an article last week:

"That's all this case is about," Fitzgerald said of a legal provision known as criminal responsibility.

-snip-

Dillard noted that prosecutors cannot rely on Thomas' admission that he was at Davidson's Chipman Street home when the couple were forced inside. He cited a lengthy list of claims the state must prove in order to hold Thomas criminally responsible.

"Did you benefit?" he said. "Did you participate in it? Did you promote or assist in it? (Did you) solicit, direct, aid or attempt to aid?"

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/nov/19/both-sides-detail-thomas-case-for-jurors/​
He also said today that the pros couldn't pick and choose, but had to prove all seven of those factors.
 
Muffet said:
OK, here's this from an article last week:

"That's all this case is about," Fitzgerald said of a legal provision known as criminal responsibility.

-snip-

Dillard noted that prosecutors cannot rely on Thomas' admission that he was at Davidson's Chipman Street home when the couple were forced inside. He cited a lengthy list of claims the state must prove in order to hold Thomas criminally responsible.

"Did you benefit?" he said. "Did you participate in it? Did you promote or assist in it? (Did you) solicit, direct, aid or attempt to aid?"

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/nov/19/both-sides-detail-thomas-case-for-jurors/​
He also said today that the pros couldn't pick and choose, but had to prove all seven of those factors.
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Had major problems with my computer today. Just read through the very detailed posts and I am so grateful for the wonderful job done reporting the events today. I have a question about the events involving taking Chris to the railroad tracks to kill and burn him. GT was a participant in this event, right? Why can't this alone meet the factors required to hold him responsible?
 
lonetraveler said:
Had major problems with my computer today. Just read through the very detailed posts and I am so grateful for the wonderful job done reporting the events today. I have a question about the events involving taking Chris to the railroad tracks to kill and burn him. GT was a participant in this event, right? Why can't this alone meet the factors required to hold him responsible?
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As far as I know, there is no admissible evidence placing GT at the RR tracks, except for the inference that he was one of the 4 black men Jenkins says he saw in the 4-runner going that way, about 45 minutes before the pop pop pop was heard.

It's looking like what this is all going to boil down to is whether or not the jurors' think it's credible that he sat in the house smokin a blunt as the others did the deeds, even if there is no actual evidence he did more than that. ...Or are so appalled that he would sit there and do nothing, they don't care if he met the technical definitions for criminal responsibility or not. I sure don't.
 
Perfect timing. ;) Jamie answers all our questions.
Prosecutors build circumstantial case around Thomas
By Jamie Satterfield
Published Wednesday, December 2, 2009
...

The battle over torture-slayings suspect George Thomas' fate is nestled in legalese that poses this crucial question: Did he "solicit, direct, aid or attempt to aid" the killings?

...
Prosecutors ... have made it clear they suspect Thomas, 26, had a direct hand in the [crimes]. But Fitzgerald conceded ... that she and Price have no direct proof to back up that suspicion.

...

Prosecutors are using a state law known as criminal responsibility to try to put him on death row. Under that law, a person can be held equally guilty for crimes committed by another.

But just how high is the bar that law sets? Is mere presence at a crime scene enough? Is failing to stop a crime enough? Is sharing the bounty enough?

It will be up to this jury of seven women and five men from Chattanooga to decide not only what role, if any, Thomas played but what evidentiary threshold prosecutors must crest to satisfy the elements of the criminal responsibility law.

The state is proceeding under a subsection of the law that declares a person criminally responsible for another's crimes "if, acting with the intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense or to benefit in the proceeds or results of the offense, the person solicits, directs, aids or attempts to aid another person to commit the offense."
...
http://m.knoxnews.com/news/2009/dec/02/prosecutors-build-circumstantial-case-around/​
 
JulieR said:
OOmy that is why Chris's body was on the screen today? Wow hope they get a better camera person also, I had just clicked on when that was on the screen and it was really a shock I am glad he didn't show the rest of the pictures and I sure hope he is not on when they do Shannon. This one of them cases I don't think I will ever get over.
I did get to see him walking out, just the back of him and he did kind of look slow to move.........I think this guys brain is fried, hopefully the jury can finish him off.
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That photo was on the screen briefly during the live stream of the Cobbins trial in August.
 
Dan Crenshaw is up. KPD. Senior evidence technician. Fingerprints.
 
Crenshaw explaining how he used superglue to extract fingerprints from the garbage bags.
 
Gooood morning. Not all the way up & running yet, but getting there. :coffee:
 
Muffet said:
Gooood morning. Not all the way up & running yet, but getting there. :coffee:
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Same here. My butt is dragging this morning.

It's so quiet in the courtroom this morning that it's putting me to sleep.
 
Crenshaw identifying the garbage bags.
 
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