A disturbing precedent concerning murder of the foreign born — there was no indication that those who beat Luis Ramirez to death knew he was an undocumented immigrant — has been set in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Teenagers Not Guilty in Fatal Beating
A Mexican man named Luis Ramirez was beaten to death by three young white men “with bright futures”. The young men where acquitted of any charges which would indicate they killed this man. Though the jury went so far as to charge one guy with providing alcohol to minors, and charged the other two with “simple assault”.
Foreman: Not sure beyond reasonable doubt
An all-white jury of six men and six women heard from several prosecution witnesses, including a juvenile co-defendant and another teen who pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in the fight.
“I do believe that our verdict was a fair verdict given the evidence and the testimony that we had to work with. But I do believe that the four boys, and especially the two that were on trial, are guilty of those crimes, but there was not enough evidence to convict them beyond a reasonable doubt,” said jury foreman Eric Maclin, according to WNEP.com.
Guess it’s just too hard to figure out, when you are intoxicated, that kicking a downed man in the head again and again is the wrong thing to do. Too problematic for a white jury to see the the evidence for what it was — proof of a hate crime in which three men beat to death a man named Luis Raimiriz because he was Mexican. Take away the word Mexican for a minute and guess what the verdict would have been.
I guess it pays to be a white honor students with a jury looking out for your best interests.
Heads up Sauerkraut
Mexican’s Death Bares a Town’s Ethnic Tension
Hispanic group: Verdict is ‘outrage’
No murder conviction in Mexican immigrant’s beating death
Hispanic group asks Justice Dept. to intervene over acquittal in trial
Home of the free and land of the brave?
We don’t have to ask “what’s going on”. We know. The same thing has been going on as long as my grandmother can remember.
The 2nd biggest part of the story down here — right after the part about his killers being acquitted — is how the Justice Department is being asked to investigate the matter as a hate crime.
That was done shortly after Ramirez was killed. The matter was assigned to the Allentown office of the FBI. But nothing was done, at least not under the Bush controlled FBI or DOJ. I hope the new administration will take a good hard and serious look at the matter.
As for the county’s district attorney, I hope he gets sent back to the private sector come the next election. The most important case in that county and he totally blew it.
Thanks for the shout-out.
sauerkraut’s last blog post..GOP tries to re-invent the conservative Republican image
i saw that the justice department has been consulted.
More often than not my job takes me to Asia, South America and Europe. They see more clearly our justice system than most here do.
I’m sure they do, it’s hard to see things that are right under our nose.
All this while some assholes are still complaining that we’ve extended hate crime protections to gays, transgendereds, and the disabled.
Blind justice indeed.
EsotericWombat’s last blog post..Testing…
Did the DA blow it, Kitty, or did he do what he was elected to do? And if you did get him voted back into the private sector, given the small fraction of the average attorney’s income that is earned by most public-sector lawyers, he’d probably thank you.
As a scientist, I find the notion of revamping our judicial system to be focused on the bald facts of the case (“did he do it or didn’t he?”), on “analysis” rather than “persuasion”. But also, as a scientist, I’m both less informed on, and suspicious of trends in ‘philosophy’. The other day, I had reason to review the Wikipedia page on postmodernism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism), discovering (late, I know) that, in this worldview, there’s no such thing as objective truth, even in science.
I doubt that anyone associated with the Ramirez case spent time arguing the finer points of postmodernism or postpostmodernism. But they illustrate its central conclusion, which is “he who shouts loudest has the floor”. Objective reality that does not reflect the self-interest of the most powerful person / group in the room has no chance of a hearing. See “global warming”. This is scary, or should be.
It’s also not new. A person (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Quitman) accused (correctly) of financing a private army for the purpose of seizing Cuba from Spain in violation of US Federal law, could not be convicted of the crime because citizens in the American South favored the expedition (which, if successful, would have added Cuba to the ranks of American slave states). A New Orleans newspaper hailed the result as just, “because public opinion makes a law.”
I return to my question about the DA …
the amoeba’s last blog post..Pizza With Anchovies
The DA, a full-timer named Goodman, blew it.
Shenandoah is a short jig south of Hazelton — remember the anti-immigrant rent ordinance of a few years ago? — just off I-81. It’s an even shorter distance from a rather large state prison prone to racial and ethnic violence. Many of the correctional officers who work at that prison in Frackville are from the Rts 61/924 corridor. Further south along 61 is Reading — a city largely populated by “minorities” — which has an incredible amount of violence. Guess where most of those criminals — those awaiting trial and convicted — go? Right… to that prison in which a bunch of Shenandoahans work.
Reading is surrounded by hills that turn mountainous and very white just north of I-78.
What’s that got to do with the DA blowing it?
How can a murdered hispanic man gain justice when the jury is comprised of no “minorities”? That’s the first thing Goodman should have considered. In an area where anti-immigrant thought and action is high, sitting an all-white jury was tantamount to an acquittal. The outcome was predictable. The DA should have at least filed a motion to move the trial.
We usually only think of defendants as having rights. But victims have rights, too.
Sitting an all-white jury was just an extension of the street justice doled out by the group of drunk white high school football players.
And that’s just the start of it.
sauerkraut’s last blog post..Why Don’t the Moody Blues do that reunion thing?
I’d need to know if the DA tried to seat minorities — whether there were any in the juror pool, and whether, if so, an energetic defense got them all disqualified. I’d need to know the record and attitudes of the presiding judge (also elected?), who may have quashed (and would have the power to quash) any attempt either to broaden the jury pool or move the trial — expensive in both money and time, and therefore unlikely especially in a recession. The DA may be guilty of no more than lacking the courage to tilt at windmills and risk getting lynched in the attempt.
And what are we really arguing about? Most Northern abolitionists were happy to make black slaves free … somewhere else. Lest those freed slaves move into the districts of those that worked to free them and refuse to vote their way. Is this about Luis Ramirez, or about one group of non-recent-immigrants using Ramirez to assert political and moral power over another group of non-recent-immigrants?
the amoeba’s last blog post..Hitchhiker
you all carry on.
“Objective reality that does not reflect the self-interest of the most powerful person / group in the room has no chance of a hearing”
This I understand.
“The DA may be guilty of no more than lacking the courage to tilt at windmills and risk getting lynched in the attempt.”
But that’s his job, isn’t it? Playing it politically safe is not part of his job description; he needs to do whatever he needs to do to gain justice for the victim — in this case a murdered hispanic man in a county where anti-immigrant feelings have run extremely high thanks to a politically ambitious Hazelton mayor. The DA, imho, was obligated to move the case to a less hostile jurisdiction. The jury pool, as I understand it, was almost entirely local (the illegals and green card immigrants tend not to register to vote or to get drivers licenses).
As for your last paragraph, it’s off-base. This isn’t some intellectual exercise. A man’s been killed and his two very young kids — part gringo and part hispanic — have no padre to call papa.
I know people who live near there. I am not surprised. sad that that is all I can come up with.
“Objective reality that does not reflect the self-interest of the most powerful person / group in the room has no chance of a hearing”
the clear and present truth
jake’s last blog post..The seedings and the tournament
yup
I’m not surprised. I’ve been noticing ever since I had the run-in with the law over hitting that school bus driver that verdicts are handed out based on who the suspect is as much as what he actually did. I mean – my judge came right out and said those exact words, that she didn’t want one mistake to tarnish my future.
I was happy at the time, but now I see what travesty of justice that kind of system establishes in our country.
mojo shivers’s last blog post..You’ve Got A Lot To Say, I’m Not The One To Make You Feel This Way, But You’ve Got A Lot To Say, And You’ve Got A Lot To Prove
exactly
Although it shouldn’t, it still astonishes me that we live in a place where injustice occurs daily. Where hate crimes and prejudice seem to be approved, and are dismissed all in the name of “following the law.”
When you cannot decipher a crime based on what you are seeing right in front of you, in concession to “the law,” then there is a serious problem.
Marvalus’s last blog post..Poetry Monday: Who Am I?
It makes it hard to intervene in the problems in the rest of the world.
Which isn’t at all unique in terms of actions taken by the Bush Justice Department
EsotericWombat’s last blog post..American Wingnut, Stay Away From Me
I will be home tomorrow night and read the articles soon
When verdicts are decided strictly by evidence and law we will truly be a democratic society
pia’s last blog post..Look out New York I’m coming*
You take a nap when you get home and don’t worry about it. It’s pouring so your trip hopefully was not too bad.
Justice, there is none, and probably won’t be for the foreseeable future.
john’s last blog post..It’s My Party
That’s a big help John.
The Bush DOJ at work. Yet again another lovely legacy left for his great nation. Didn’t the defendants admit to singling him out because he was Mexican?
One of the gang of six (only three made it to trial) plead guilty to ethnic intimidation and testified at trial.
sauerkraut’s last blog post..Why Don’t the Moody Blues do that reunion thing?
Read about this first here. Hopefully there will be such a backlash, that justice will be served in the end.
Nice to see you Inde. How the heck are you?
We get Philly news here, there was a former Philly police officer who was a witness to the beating who was never called to testify?