Weaknesses seen in case against Blake

Weaknesses seen in case against Blake

By Matt Krasnowski
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

March 18, 2005

LOS ANGELES – Not long after Bonny Lee Bakley was killed, police said it seemed obvious that her husband, actor Robert Blake, was responsible.

His alibi didn't make sense. He had told many people he hated Bakley. Her family said she feared him. Later, two stuntmen who once worked with Blake said he asked them to kill Bakley.

(snip)

Trial watchers said yesterday that weaknesses in the case were equally obvious from the start. Prosecutors had scant physical evidence linking Blake to the murder weapon, no eyewitnesses, questionable informants and a victim of questionable morals.

(snip)

Those problems were magnified by defense lawyer M. Gerald Schwartzbach, whose soft-spoken, measured style drew praise from jurors and legal analysts. "He epitomizes 'slow and steady wins the race,' " Cole said. "You have to lay the victory at the feet of the attorney."

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050318/news_1n18blake.html

From one who served on a jury, I have a lot of respect for the system when it's run by a non-nonsense judge and the emphasis is purely on the case and the law. In this trial, that appears to be the case.

We didn't see all the goofiness of the Jacko fiasco or OJ...the judge put tight lids on anything going on outside the court room and the trial focused on the facts and evidence. The Prosecution didn't have their case and the verdict showed me, not only how poorly they presented their case, but also that this jury...seeing the evidence none of us have, had doubts this man couldn't have killed her. Straight out, this is how the system works. It wasn't money or celebrity, it was done right.

For years, I favored lifting bans to allow cameras in courtrooms, but with the advent of a whole industry based on turning the judicial system into cartoon entertainment, my thoughts have changed drastically in recent years.

I definitely think they needed evidence beyond a reasonable doubt and they didn't in this case. You've got to put your faith and trust in the jury-since they're the ones that are seeing all of the information, and we aren't.

I won't go into details in the case I served, but I've seen the system work and when done right and equally (an operative word), it still is the best system around.

Too many like to make snap judgements based on filters and perceptions, not facts...then when a verdict comes out that isn't the way they wanted it or to their liking, it's always the system that failed. It'd be nice if they got empaneled.

Welcome and thanks for your comments.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

sensational there is much pre-trial publicity. We get only the information they want us to have. For some reason the Blake case wasn't covered the same as OJ, Petersen, Jackson. There should be a gag order in each individual case. Just because some journalist thinks someone is guilty doesn't make it so.

Clearly the OJ educated many judges about the circus atmosphere when everyone is playing to the camera. Poor Judge Ito - remember him? Once there was a big story about the adult son of his wife who was caught in something illegal. A son who was barely 10 years younger than the judge himself and who was already an adult when the judge married his wife. But everything was a fodder to the "news" media.

I also remember when the limousine driver was on the witness stand and had to account for all of his activities that day, including the names of previous passengers. And I thought about these poor travelers who thought that it was nobody's business when they traveled, and all of a sudden found themselves on the national "news."

This network has turned into CSI-TV. They're judge and jury all day all night. The worst, of course, is Nancy Grace :puke:. No one makes me grab the remote faster than that "work".

The public has a right to know and trials should be open, but there has to be a line drawn when it's for news/information/public record purposes and entertainment. For example, the nightly recreations of the Jacko trial...those things are a symptom of this disease. Why the judge allows this to go on is beyond me.

Simpson I tuned out since everyone I saw connected with that case appeared to be milking it for their own gains. This spawned the Court circus genre and now with reality TV we've truly come into the age of the Truman Show.

Cheers

The jury system does work and wasn't set up to be cheap entertainment.