Lacrosse ugliness at U.Va.

Wouldn't surprise me if something goes down when the boys find out they're hanging with George Wesley Huguely V.

 

After paying close attention to this entire trial, I feel pretty good about our justice system in this case. I think the jury got it right. They could still disappoint me with the sentence, but second-degree was right.

Love's family was likely hoping for first degree. Huguely's defense was likely holding out a little bit of hope it would be manslaughter. Both sides had to have been preparing themselves for this verdict all along.

He could get up to 60 years if he gets the max for both charges.

 

Headline on washingtonpost.com says that jury has recommended a 26 year sentence.

 

So if I really wanted to kill someone, drinking a 12-pack ahead of time is the way to go.

The kid said he was going to do it well ahead of time, and he did it.

 

So...26 years minus what, 2, for time served? Fifteen percent for good behavior. That puts him at about 20 years.

Some will say that's getting off light, and they may be right. But goddamn, 20 years is a long fucking time. Sucks for him.

 

This might be the first time I've agreed with anything Devil has posted on this site.

It's not like there was NO evidence Huguely had contemplated Love's death. If I had been a juror, reading an e-mail from the accused to the victim that said (in part) "I should've killed you," would strongly suggest that it had at least crossed his mind.

Getting drunk, then, would be a meager defense IMHO for his beating her to death.

All along, the defense seemed to be hanging its hopes on "He didn't mean to kill her."

Well, what the fuck did he expect to happen when he savagely beat her, choked her and slammed her head repeatedly into a wall?

And if he was so drunk that he was incapable of premeditation, how was he clear-eyed enough to remember to take the laptop that contained the incriminating e-mail?

Huguely was a ticking time bomb. Plenty of evidence of violent behavior in his past -- both toward Love and otherwise. Basically like the OJ case, a controlling abuser who couldn't deal with the fact that the girl he wanted had moved on and showed her who was boss by killing her with his hands.

OJ had the glove. George Wesley Huguely V had the beer.

I'm sick at this bullshit verdict. He'll be out before he's 40, will inherit his family's fortune and spend the rest of his days living the high life.

And the family of the girl he beat to death will still be grieving her loss.

 

Obviously.

 

He's 24, right? Which means there's no way he's out before he's 40.

Edit: If he gets the full 26-year sentence, I mean.

 

OK, so Huguely's out at 40 or 45 or 50.

Still got the better end of this deal by a wide margin.

He could've -- and should've -- gotten 40 years.

Even if the jury was unable to bring itself to believe the rich, handsome lacrosse player was capable of murderous intent, they very well should've given him every available second of the sentence on both counts.

He certainly deserved more, but I could've lived with that much.

This sentencing recommendation just adds insult to fatal injury. Love's family must be absolutely sick this morning.

 

If Chapman and his people hadn't been preparing the Love family for this outcome, then he was doing them a disservice. Second-degree murder and roughly 25 years is what just about everyone who had been covering the trial locally predicted he'd get.

While I certainly wouldn't have been sad to see him get more, if you take emotions out of it there was no way the prosecution proved first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

And this isn't necessarily a case of a rich, white man getting off easily. Last month in the same court house a poor black man was convicted of second-degree murder after stabbing his wife 17 times. He got 15 years.

 

"Yeardley and Rihanna":

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/02/yeardley-and-rihanna.html

Not sure exactly what the writer's point is, but it does further prove this for me: If Chris Brown isn't the most despicable human being alive, he's in the fucking team picture.

On the locked Whitney Houston thread, I noted that some of Houston's music could, potentially, be somewhat corrosive for young girls and their developing self-esteem. I just don't like the message of, in particular, a song like, "How Will I Know." That being said, I cannot even put into words how damaging it is for Rihanna to give this piece of excrement a continuing platform.