Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Florida Girl's Body Found

This is topic Florida Girl's Body Found in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 02-06-2004, 07:10 AM:

Like it says.

All the sadder since we've all seen the actual abduction on that videotape. Bastard.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-06-2004, 08:24 AM:

The jerk was caught before on a similar rap, and the jury believed his bullshit story!

quote:
In the 1997 kidnapping case, a 20-year-old woman in Bradenton said a man grabbed her as she walked by and tried to pull her away, according to records released by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

"He got on top of me and told me to shut up or he would cut me," she told authorities. After a struggle, she said, she managed to run into the street, and passengers in an approaching van stopped and rescued her.

Smith, found hiding behind a house by a police tracking dog, was acquitted by jurors after telling them he was trying to keep the woman from running into the street and she misunderstood.

Yeah, mounting a woman and saying, "shut up, or I'll cut you" can be easily misconstrued. Yet another reason we should have professional juries.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-06-2004, 03:00 PM:

What abduction? What tape? I am not familiar with that case, I don`t watch TV.

Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 02-06-2004, 03:19 PM:

That settles it, Michael has absolutly NO touch with reality.

Michael, how could you POSSIBLY not know, wether you watch TV or not. The story has been on every news service, TV, Radio, Print and the Internet.

Here's a little link to get you started.
CNN

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-06-2004, 03:37 PM:

I don't have a TV in the flat either. Because I deal with moving images at work all day, I like to have a break from them when I get home (although I do watch the occasional DVD on the computer).

Quote from the CNN story:

quote:
"We have fulfilled another portion of our obligation. We have found Carlie and the person responsible for her murder," said Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Bell. [My italics]

I'm amazed that a police spokesman could come out with a statement like that in public. The guy they arrested has not been convicted yet! If I were his defence lawyer I would argue that this statement, coming from the Police and having been widely reported, has irreversibly prejudiced any chance he ever had of getting a fair trial and that the charges should therefore be thrown out. If he is guilty, that would be a tragedy which puts other innocent lives at risk.

This is a very different style of crime reporting from that of our media. The moment someone is charged with a crime here the issue becomes 'sub judice' (under the law), meaning that all you can report is that 'Joe Bloggs, 25, of <insert location here>, is charged that on 1 January 2000 he murdered John Doe at <insert location here>.' No further coverage related to the accused can be published until the trial, during which the media can only report a factual account of what was said during the trial. If Bloggs' ex-girlfriend turns up at the offices of a newspaper and reveals all about what a pervert he is, that newspaper cannot print any of it until after the trial; the reason being that doing so could prejudice potential jurors who read it.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-06-2004, 04:27 PM:

On one level, I would agree that the Sheriff made an inappropriate comment when claiming to have "found the person responsible for her murder." Further, I would agree the American media does a shameful job in sensationalizing crimes and making suspects appear guilty far in advance of their trial. It is all over the motive of trying to "scoop" all their competitors. The jackals don't realize they're risking lives in the process. I would even go so far as to say the American media is greatly responsible for a lot of the murder and mayhem we have in our country, thanks to their indoctrination of Americans through popular culture. Canada has just as many guns, but nowhere near the level of homicides.

However, it should be said the Sheriff was emotional (as were many of us) when the search ended in finding the girl dead. Other facts have to be considered. The "suspect" made comments in jail that led the police to her body. There is foresnic evidence that the girl was in his car. We haven't seen the NASA-technology-enhanced photos gleaned from the videotape, but the police have. They have also heard a lot from the lady who lived with the suspect.

I would say the Sheriff is both confident, and very pissed off. So he slipped a bit. Overall, that law enforcement agency has been very good at handling the case thus far. They refused to give anything but the most basic details to the press about the suspect once he was in custody. Overall, it is the press that is jumping to far more conclusions than the law enforcement people.

I just hope the Florida court system does their best to make sure the suspect gets a fair trial and that no mistakes are made in handling his case. My own hope is that they have lots of DNA and other evidence on hand for the trial to remove all doubt.

Then, if the guy is convicted, execute the bastard. Too bad cruel and unusual punishment is against the law. Lethal injection is too easy a way to die for any child killer. They need the gas chamber --or better yet, they need to be electrocuted through their testicles.

The Sheriff seems to be making comments based on strong confidence that the guy they have in custody is very likely the killer. Everyone involved in this case, and the public in general, is outraged over this crime.

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 02-06-2004, 04:44 PM:

i watched the surveillance tape, showing the guy walk off with the girl. to me it looked like he was not forcing her and she went with him freely. i was hoping she ran away from home with him, since the tape show no signs of force. i put to much faith in people, i guess.

i hope he gets the death pentaly.

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 02-06-2004, 04:45 PM:

killer caught

Posted by Steve Anderson (Member # 364) on 02-06-2004, 05:23 PM:

I wonder if anybody has asked why they waited so long to issue a "AMBER ALERT" when this child was reported missing.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 02-06-2004, 05:51 PM:

first i heard of it too. everyone who knows anything about this is east of the rockies (that includes leo). so it must just be local news.

over here we couldn't get enough of that laci peterson thing. they found those remains in my city.

carl

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-06-2004, 06:14 PM:

quote:
I would say the Sheriff is both confident, and very pissed off. So he slipped a bit. Overall, that law enforcement agency has been very good at handling the case thus far. They refused to give anything but the most basic details to the press about the suspect once he was in custody. Overall, it is the press that is jumping to far more conclusions than the law enforcement people.

Granted, and a fair criticism of our system would be that it tends to go too far in the other direction. Following the conviction of Ian Huntley, who murdered two schoolgirls in a small commuter town not far from Cambridge, it emerged that there had been a string of allegations relating to sexual offences made against him. The police were strongly criticised for not making that information available to his victims' school when he applied for a job as a caretaker there (they claimed that data protection laws prevented them from doing so), and the 'sub judice' rule was criticised because it prevented the jury from knowing about these allegations when considering its verdict.

This was a really difficult one. He'd never previously been convicted of anything, and I for one would have a big problem with the police handing out information about anyone other than criminal record information. There's a potentially huge civil liberties issue there, IMHO - for example, if someone maliciously accused me of sexual harassment, the last thing I would want is for the police to make that information available to an organisation I've applied for a job at. But in Huntley's case, if information about the earlier complaints had been divulged, it could well have saved two lives.

I don't support the death penalty but would certainly say that if the Florida suspect is guilty he should never see the light of day again.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 02-07-2004, 12:18 PM:

I am very much PRO Death-penalty. And furthermore, I do not believe in "humane methods"! I do believe that these perps should suffer just as they made their victims suffer!

Now keep in mind that in our court system, a person is innocent until proven guilty. I will also concede that there have been innocent people on death row. This is why it is critical that it is critical in capitol cases to make sure via evidence that the accused is actually the perp.

But I am very much against criminal and terrorist support networks like the ACLU, who's prime agenda is to help criminals avoid being punished for their actions by cleaming "medical defect", enviornmental circumstances, or having crucial evidence thrown out because of some bullshit legal technicalty.

If the media is correct and forthright in the info it has provided to the public regarding this case, then this bastard needs to FRY!

I would have no problem acting as the executioner!

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-07-2004, 01:01 PM:

Apparently you need therapy yourself.

Posted by Howard Johnson (Member # 62) on 02-07-2004, 01:27 PM:

One thing I find disturbing about capital punishment in the USA is that a convicted person can spend 10 years or more on death row, and still be executed. I don't agree with the death penalty but when we did have it in the UK a person only spent 3-6 weeks in the condemned cell before death or he was reprieved.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 02-07-2004, 01:39 PM:

I think that because before a person is actually executed, there are many appeals that can be made. Theoretically, it also buys some time if other evidence comes up.

Posted by Rachel Gilardi (Member # 1016) on 02-07-2004, 01:53 PM:

If you guys are going to continue to talk about the death penalty please bring it to the political arena.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-07-2004, 03:18 PM:

Actually, the need for vengeance is really what gets people murdered in the first place.

Overall, our media needs a major house cleaning and Americans in general need a lot of therapy to undo this stupid habit we have of turning everything into a sport. We elevate a few people to high "hero" status and spit on everyone else. This combative attitude begats violence and hate. We grow fearful of our neighbors and become isolated. It is just plain unhealthy. IMHO, it seems to be a much more difficult thing to do by loving one another rather than being hateful.

Posted by Dennis Atkinson (Member # 345) on 02-07-2004, 03:42 PM:

If I remember right, the perps name was not mentioned by the sheriff at the news conference at any time.
Death penalty? No. Organ donor? Yes!

Dennis

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-08-2004, 04:39 AM:

Responses on the death penalty moved to the political forum as requested.