The latest in a veritable succession of bids for a mistrial once again occurred today when Jeremiah Donovan claimed that on Friday afternoon, one of the members of the Petit family - or a supporter, walked over to some jury members on the line waiting to get back into court, and said something to the effect of "thank you for what you're doing"
For whatever reason, it could not be ascertained whether the person was a member of the Petit family or a supporter, or friend - But in any event, the jurors involved were questioned by Judge Blue and the majority had not heard what this person said, having been engrossed in their own conversations. The exception was the Juror closest to the person speaking, who reported the contact to the court, remembering that the yd been instructed not to speak to either the defense nor the prosecution or victims family members.
While Judge Blue stated that addressing the jury at all was improper and poor judgement, none of the jurors questioned said that the yd been affected as most hadn't heard it al all and the juror who did hear it was not rendered partial in any way. Bottom line, it did not necessitate, nor demand a mistrial as was predictably motioned for by the defense.
Everything, it seems is prejudicial to defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, at least according to Attorney Jeremiah Donovan, the defense pack leader and a man who has sunk to ethical lows starting in the early pre-trial stages of this case.This in - your - face aggressiveness (towards the surviving victim and their family no less) was not always Attorney Donovan's M.O here - In fact he has come a long way from the "compassionate, sensitive Attorney act that he donned soon after the murders occurred, going so far as to make a disclaimer/apology of sorts shortly after Komisarjevsky's arraignment
" I too have a beloved wife and daughters, he said softly with the utmost of feigned sincerity... yet I will still give Joshua the vigorous defense that he is entitled to by law" I remember the words exactly because I recoiled at the Christian name of this animal being used in such an innocuous sounding context.
Donovan somehow traversed from this obviously feigned persona to taking off the gloves in a place where there is no scheduled fight, and incessantly attacking surviving victim William Petit Jr as well as his extended family members, making himself many enemies and even fellow professionals questioning his despicable tactics akin to the rape case tactics of days gone by.
Referring to the victims family as the "Petit Posse", first in a pre-trial motion, which tried to disallow the family from wearing the Petit foundation pins that they'd worn to the Hayes trial. See posts below for further details of this insanity. And yet again wresting up the pin issue as he cross examined William Petit, seemingly trying to fluster the bereaved man, rapid fire questioning as if a prosecutor, He noted out loud and not without sarcasm' I see you're wearing your pin today ...."
But he wasn't done yet, he made yet another bitter comment about these Dove pins in open court, as well on a separate day he quickly brought attention to a shirt that Joanne Chapman was wearing to court that had a picture of the dove Petit Foundation logo on it. As he caustically pointed out her shirt to the courtroom full of people, she pulled on a sweater to cover it. I remember thinking good for you you do what you want!. I was puzzled too by Judge Blue who seemed to be overly cognizant of appearing too prosecution favorable. As a result he wasn't taking judicial action when he really should have.
Upon the " Petit posse" remark, prosecutor Dearington leaped up to object, yet Blue calmly informed him I'm not the word police!" Thereby setting a tone for the proceedings whereby attorney Donovan felt he could say whatever he wished to the victims and their family, as the judge now seemed more afraid of looking he was partial ,was going overboard in the opposite direction. Exactly what this defense wanted. This was reminiscant of the situation whereby they accused Dr Petit of shopping his ideas all over town, this was an overt attempt to shame a very humble conscientious man; Even though the last thing Petit was doing was in fact " shopping his views around town, the insult and the inference seemed to have the desired effect as had other remarks by Thomas Ullmann during the Hayes trial.
Ullmann would accuse William Petit of media hounding and sure enough a man of class and deeply private, he pulled back from interviews etc., which was extremely modest to begin with, even farther, lest he or his family be accused of courting the media, and this is exactly what the desired effect was for the attorney saying these things.
I couldn't help thinking how ludicrous it was that this man's original objection was that these pins and this logo- depicting three doves, were in view of the jury, whom he insisted within the original motion, could see them from their vantage point (the pins are small and discreet) And yet at every possible corner, Donovan brought these prejudicial pins up over and over and over again ensuring that the jury and everyone else was now aware of something they very well might not have noticed. This proves the lack of authenticity in the defense's original motion and the subsequent griping. Its all about diversion; ie from the glaring guilt of their client. and a design to fluster and wear down the family and witness and victim William Petit and lastly throwing out bones hoping one of these nonsensical moves for mistrials will be enough to later appeal and get a new trial.
I was very surprised that the prosecution rested today. It seemed very premature. I will write more about the prosecution and the vantage points that need to be summarized for this Jury who might be somewhat sucked in by the surprise of Komisarjevsky's appearance and the paradox presented by a sociopath that happens to have youthful facial features and AOM looks like a regular person"rather than the child rapist multi-murderer that he is. I believe from the look of the this jury they are intelligent enough to not allow reflexive first impression to color all of the evidence in this trial.
A great deal still needs to be explained to the Jury, within the prosecutions closing argument, I am hoping that the many pieces of evidence, including Komisarjevsky's contradictory statements made on tape to Cheshire Police, interviews and letters with writer Brian MacDonald, as well his own writings, are all presented in such a way that insure the Jury See's this man's base manipulative nature and how this aided and abetted him in these crimes.
Here is a link to a blog post concerning the ugly behavior of this Defense team Calls for Justice
No comments:
Post a Comment