Unmaking a Murderer

29 points by tommcshwa 4 years ago | 8 comments

That confession is ridiculous. He tried to steal something, the women attacked him, and "somehow" he calmed them down and convinced them to go to a private area with him where he would let them go. How were they even in a position where he needed to let them go?

It's no surprise even the prosecutors thought it was ridiculous. Unfortunately they didn't seem to care that their only evidence was a joke.

trhway 4 years ago |

he probably didn't have money for a lawyer. The difference money make when it comes to the justice system can hardly be overestimated. I mean compare for example the following 2 cases. In one they have just given 110 years to the truck driver, Cuban immigrant, whose brakes failed and the truck plowed into other cars killing 4 in 2019. The other case is on the opposite end of the spectrum - that NVidia director, Russian immigrant, who 1.5 years ago "allegedly" (the guy has money for lawyers) speeding drunk plowed into a couple cars on I-85 killing a woman, and he is out on a pretty insignificant for Silicon Valley bail enjoying the life while his lawyer has been drowning the case with all kind of constitutional and BS defenses (like statute of limitation, no kidding) and counter suing the other drivers/etc. with his trial nowhere in sight (and when/if it comes to the trial some years down the road he can just take his NVidia millions made over those years and retire back to Russia or pretty much anywhere else and continue enjoying free life)

tommcshwa 4 years ago | |

Recently read about Kevin Strickland, who was just discharged for a 1979, case which is now proven that he did not commit.. After 43 years in Jail!!! Also that Silk road guy Ross Ulbricht was given Double life imprisonment + 40 years without possibility of parole for a non violent crime.. These days it's getting ridiculous.

Joker_vD 4 years ago | | |

Or that lovely story from 2015 of a Saudi millionaire who tripped and accidentally got his penis inside a woman: [0], was cleared of all charges.

[0] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/millionaire-ehsa...

PhantomGremlin 4 years ago | |

compare for example the following 2 cases

Certainly you're right about the difference money makes.

However (we have an international readership on HN) it's important to point out that this happened in two different states. In the USA these cases are prosecuted in state or local courts.

It's beyond crazy how different the procedures and consequences are in different states.

ctchocula 4 years ago | |

Do you have a name of the nvidia director? Tried googling but web looks like it's been scrubbed clean.

trhway 4 years ago | | |

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/16/one-dead-driver...

clavicat 4 years ago | |

I think jurisdiction and the choice of prosecutor and judge do more to explain the incredible discrepancies we see in the mess that is the American justice system. You have to be very careful when contrasting different cases in different areas—there are so many cases and so many outcomes that it's very easy to cherrypick any two to make any point you want. Two examples:

The son of multimillionaire entrepreneur James Khuri killed a woman while speedracing his Lamborghini through Los Angeles. He was sentenced to serve a pathetic seven to nine months not in prison but in a youth camp and home detention.

On the other hand, Cameron Herrin killed a mother and her baby while speedracing his Mustang through the streets of Tampa—he was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.

They're the same age. They're both rich. They're both white boys. They were both speedracing. And yet their sentences could not be more different. Frankly, it sounds like California is just soft-on-crime when it comes to vehicular offenses.

In the case of the Cuban truck driver, he was railroaded by local sentencing laws that forced the judge to sentence him to consecutive terms for each individual victim. Even the prosecutor in that case is now filing motions to get his sentence reduced.