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  1. #1
    Senior Member AuntB's Avatar
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    Unspeakable Justice - illegal alien murderer may go free!

    http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... zn.01.html


    Paula Zahn, CNN aired 8/24/05

    PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you all for joining us tonight.
    Tonight, a little-known and controversial loophole that could let an accused killer go free. An outrageous crime and an obvious suspect. But he can't hear, can't speak, and, unbelievably, because of that, he may never face justice.

    MAJOR STAN STOUT, JAMES CITY POLICE: It worries me, yes, that he could be turned loose.

    ZAHN: We start tonight with a baffling true crime drama. We've never heard anything like this one before.

    It's about the murder of a teenage girl, and it's baffling, but not because there are no suspects. In fact, there is a suspect, and investigators say strong evidence points to him. What makes this case so difficult is that the suspect can't communicate to defend himself. So, how can you give him a fair trial? How can justice be done for the victim?

    TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT : The last minutes of Britney Binger's life were spent on this county road in Virginia on what should have been just an evening walk. The day after New Year's, Britney, 16 years old and estranged from her parents over personal issues, leaves the trailer park where she lives with a friend, walking to another neighborhood nearby. The area is well traveled, but in a dark cluster of trees, police say a man grabs her from behind, drives her to the ground, rapes and chokes her to death.

    FOREMAN : With the crime happening only a few miles from historic Williamsburg, an important tourist attraction, police knew they had to move quickly to ease fears. Major Stan Stout, in charge of the investigation, says Britney's vagabond life complicated the case from the beginning. This girl was leading a pretty troubled life.

    STOUT: Yes, she was, just bouncing from one home to another, anybody that would take her in. And one of the first things we did was looked on the sex offender registry and realized that, within a five-mile radius, we had a number of sex offenders.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were chasing down so many rumors. You know, we were just, I mean all of us, just basically saturating this area.

    FOREMAN : And senior investigator William Gibbs (ph) admits the evidence at the beginning was thin. There was some skin under Britney's left fingernails. They found a new bottle of Minute Maid strawberry passion fruit drink near the body. Bloodhounds led them along Britney's path to a convenience store and to a bar.

    FOREMAN: Where the dogs took special interest in one booth.

    STOUT: It's a local crowd, the same folks in there most all the time. Talked to the bartender, who was sitting there.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bartender says, well, as a matter of fact, that's where the Mexican was sitting.

    FOREMAN: So, officers say they tracked down that man, who turned out to be an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, living in this shed behind his brother's trailer. Police say they snapped this picture and added it to the stack of potential suspects, now growing at an alarming rate.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This case, it seemed, the more people we talked to, instead of narrowing it down, that, actually, the circle expanded.

    FOREMAN: One month in, police were floundering, the neighborhood increasingly tense. What was the reaction in this neighborhood?

    UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Astounding. It was just -- it -- I -- we couldn't believe it.

    UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That whole month period, that's really when everybody was kind of scared to go outside. Nobody really trusted anybody.

    FOREMAN: Then a break. Police had wanted to look at the pictures from the digital security cameras at the convenience store for weeks, but they say they had trouble opening the computer files.

    An officer finally cracked the system, and this is what they saw, right at the cooler the dogs had tracked to. Police say it is Oswaldo Martinez, the man from El Salvador, with something in his hand.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tightened up the picture, tightened it up, until we see Minute Maid strawberry passion fruit drink, 20 ounces.

    FOREMAN: Police say then the evidence all came together. Remember the skin under Britney's left fingernails? When investigators dug up that first photo of Martinez, they say they noticed something they had missed before, a clear scratch on the left side of his jaw. Police wanted only one more thing. So, two undercover officers went to the bar and waited until they say Martinez showed up, had a beer and left. Then they pounced on the empty bottle.

    STOUT: DNA from the beer bottle, the known beer bottle we saw him drinking from, matched the DNA on the Minute Maid fruit drink bottle, which matched the DNA on her left fingernails, and matched the DNA that was inside her body cavities.

    FOREMAN: Martinez was charged with capital murder.

    THURSTON: We were relieved that they had finally got him. It was just blown out the water that he actually lived in this trailer park and some of the kids around here knew him.

    FOREMAN : But the relieved community did not know that there was something special about this suspect, something that even now may keep him from ever being tried for the crimes that happened right here.

    He neither reads nor writes English nor Spanish. And he's a deaf mute.

    In legal terms, it is called linguistic incompetence. In practical terms, it means Martinez may be unable to fully understand what is happening, explain his actions, or offer any evidence to contradict the police. So, as hard as it is to believe, his disability might let him walk away from all charges a free man.

    Paul Rothstein is a legal expert at Georgetown University.

    PAUL ROTHSTEIN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: It's all well and good to say, well, the case is an open-and-shut case. What do we need him for? But you could say that in many cases. There is no substitute for the person him or her self being able to understand and communicate with their counsel.

    FOREMAN: Martinez's family won't talk about the case. Police say they've been cooperative, but much is at stake now. The court could, after all, order Oswaldo Martinez held, taught sign language, and then put on trial. His lawyer, despite a repeated request, says he will not talk about that possibility either.

    But, earlier, he told a local newspaper, we're dealing with a guy who doesn't have any base of linguistics. He doesn't have a grammar system. It's like teaching a baby.

    THURSTON (friend of victim) : And who's to say he wants to learn how to do it? Because he knows -- I know he got to know up in his head that, once he learns, he going to die. And that's all there is to it.

    FOREMAN: And police say, in a five-hour interrogation using a Spanish interpreter, hand signals and anatomically correct dolls, Martinez confessed.

    STOUT: Very difficult. Very rough.

    FOREMAN : You don't have any doubt that this is the guy and that he admitted it, no doubt?

    STOUT: Correct.

    FOREMAN : Martinez's lawyer says they don't know what he was trying to say. They just think they do.

    The Supreme Court has already ruled, if you cannot put someone on trial or prove he has a dangerous mental condition, you must set that person free.

    ROTHSTEIN: So, there is some chance that fellow may walk the streets without ever having any kind of commitment.

    STOUT: It worries me, yes, that he could be turned loose.

    FOREMAN: Martinez is still being held and will soon begin what is expected to be a long series of hearings about his competency. And, remember, if his lawyer is successful, he could wind up free, never to face this murder charge again. But where Britney Binger lived and died, the verdict is already in and unspeakable.

    THURSTON: There will never be justice for her. And that's horrible. After the life she had, now she can't even be dead and in peace.

    ZAHN: A case we will be watching, Tom Foreman reporting for us tonight.
    Want to make people angry? Lie to them.
    Want to make them absolutely livid? Tell 'em the truth."



    http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mamie's Avatar
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    the "fact" that he is a foreigner that came into this country illegally and has been "living in this shed behind his brother's trailer" is evidence he has a understanding of his whereabouts.


    He neither reads nor writes English nor Spanish. And he's a deaf mute . . . And police say, in a five-hour interrogation using a Spanish interpreter, hand signals and anatomically correct dolls, Martinez confessed.
    if he "confessed" to the "crime" exactly where is the problem????


    The Supreme Court has already ruled, if you cannot put someone on trial or prove he has a dangerous mental condition, you must set that person free.
    "illegal aliens" have no Constitutional rights . . . those are the rights of the citizens . . . the court has a duty to hold this girl's murderer accountable . . .

    I wonder if they've used his DNA to substantiate other crimes. . .
    "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it" George Santayana "Deo Vindice"

  3. #3
    bamaburgess's Avatar
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    Crazy, but not surprising..

    THis appears crazy, but not too surprising to me. What is surprising these days is that nothing these illegals do surprises me anymore- and nothing those that defend them, either. Funny story...a policeman friend of mine had been getting tired of stopping illegals and hearing the same, tired "No speak English" from them. The next time he stopped a van with 5 of them in it and he got that line, he called for backup. When backup arrived, he said loudly to his buddy "They're giving me the whole 'No speak English' deal again, and I'm tired of it". He then went over to the group of illegals and said "That's it. Anybody wearing brown shoes is going to jail!". Then he watched every one of them look down at their shoes.....

  4. #4
    Senior Member Mamie's Avatar
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    Re: Crazy, but not surprising..

    Quote Originally Posted by bamaburgess
    THis appears crazy, but not too surprising to me. What is surprising these days is that nothing these illegals do surprises me anymore- and nothing those that defend them, either. Funny story...a policeman friend of mine had been getting tired of stopping illegals and hearing the same, tired "No speak English" from them. The next time he stopped a van with 5 of them in it and he got that line, he called for backup. When backup arrived, he said loudly to his buddy "They're giving me the whole 'No speak English' deal again, and I'm tired of it". He then went over to the group of illegals and said "That's it. Anybody wearing brown shoes is going to jail!". Then he watched every one of them look down at their shoes.....
    that's too funny
    "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it" George Santayana "Deo Vindice"

  5. #5
    Senior Member Mamie's Avatar
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    Re: Crazy, but not surprising..

    Quote Originally Posted by bamaburgess
    He then went over to the group of illegals and said "That's it. Anybody wearing brown shoes is going to jail!". Then he watched every one of them look down at their shoes.....

    that's too funny
    "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it" George Santayana "Deo Vindice"

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