http://cbs2.com/local/Metrolink.Derailment.Life.2.771956.htmlAbsolutely unbelievable! Here I was thinking Israel is the most insane nation on earth; I was wrong! This beast, Juan Manuel Alvarez--who murdered 11 people in a shahid-style incineration attack on a Los Angeles Metrolink train, will only be getting "life in prison without parole"!
It only took this jury three hours to completely dismiss the pleas of the victims' families and the prosecutors; I just heard the jury foreman of this case (a twentysomething Rachel Corriesque white crackhead) explain why he concluded what he did. He said that he "did not believe" that this savage really intended to kill his victims by parking a gasoline-filled Jeep on the train tracks seconds before it came. What an animal (the jury foreman, I mean).
Mark my words; this man will walk. The "life without parole" sentence means absolutely nothing. (See below.)
Metrolink Derailment Killer Gets Life In Prison
LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A man who murdered 11 people by causing a commuter rail disaster was spared the death penalty Tuesday by jurors who wept while listening to victims' relatives but decided he should get life in prison without parole.
Juan Alvarez parked his gasoline-doused sport utility vehicle on railroad tracks in January 2005, causing a Los Angeles-bound Metrolink train to derail and crash into another train going the other way. Aside from the dead, about 180 people were injured in the wreck in Glendale, northeast of Los Angeles.
The jury, which convicted Alvarez last month, had heard the prosecution describe him as a remorseless, smirking defendant who didn't think of the case as a tragedy. The defense painted the 29-year-old as a mentally disturbed man who was almost aborted by his mother, was shaped by a childhood of horrific abuse and became a methamphetamine addict.
The penalty phase had gone to the jury late Monday and the panel signaled it had reached a decision Tuesday morning. Sentencing was set for Aug. 20.
Prosecutors said Alvarez was trying to get his estranged wife's attention the day of the crash. Prosecutors disputed his claims of being suicidal and contended he actually had been thinking of killing his wife before derailing the train.
The defense maintained Alvarez was only trying to kill himself but changed his mind at the last minute and couldn't get the SUV off the tracks before it was struck.
During the penalty phase, jurors cried openly during testimony by survivors of the dead.
Superior Court Judge William Pounders admitted outside the jury's presence that he also had been affected emotionally by the survivors' testimony and told lawyers that to balance things out he would allow jurors to hear a tape of telephone message left by Alvarez for a cousin a few minutes after the catastrophe.
"I didn't mean to do this. ... A lot of innocent people died. I don't deserve to live. ... I apologize for everything. Please pray for me, please," Alvarez sobbed in the phone message, which the judge acknowledged sounded "patently made up."
Doesn't he look a little like Samir Kuntar?
Now, for my commentary. The reason I am pretty sure this beast this walk is as follows:
1: It is entirely conceivable that a sympathetic judge will reduce his sentence to life with parole on the basis of "good behavior" or if he gets an education while in prison like Tookie Williams. Remember the recent case in which that black child rapist/torturer/killer in Florida, who was initially sentenced to life without parole, was released because a judge commuted his sentence for that reason.
2: On appeal, the jury gave his lawyers (probably pro-bono ACLU types) enough ammo to blow a hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through. If the jurors themselves do not believe he really intended to murder his victims, that will be a powerful admission in the eyes of any appellate court. They will likely order a new sentence, and perhaps a new trial. Likely at some point he will be judged legally insane and unfit to be tried on these charges, based on his state of mind at the time. He will likely spend a few years in an insane asylum and become a free man, supported by the California taxpayer for life in a nice little apartment next to where children live.
Chaimfan.
Topic: UNBELIEVABLE! WORST AZTLANIST TERRORIST IN U.S. HISTORY IS SPARED BY JURY!!! (Read 1543 times)