Friday, March 18, 2005

And Justice for All?

Well, it's been an interesting week for Celebrity trials, hasn't it. Robert Blake has been acquitted, Scott Petersen was given the death penalty, Lil Kim was convicted of perjury and Dominick Dunne settled with Gary Condit.

Robert Blake, a good actor who hasn't really worked in years, gets taken in by a con artist who manages to get pregnant with his child. He marries her because that's the kind of old-fashioned guy that he is. He falls in love with his child, but not the woman that bore her. He wants to get rid of her, but keep the child. So he arranges a hit or did he? Someone obviously wanted Bonny Blakely dead, and there was a whole list of suspects. The woman had been married 8 times, and had been quicking around Hollywood looking for that big score. Why she chose Robert Blake is beyond me.

Of course Robert Blake didn't help matters by explaining to the cops, he wasn't in the car because he forgot his gun in the restaurant. Huh? Did he take it out while he was eating? Did it just slip out? How do you forget a gun?

Whoever killed her had to have been very good, because if Blake didn't do it but hired someone, they haven't been found. I find it hard to believe that he was going to ask two stunt men with drug problems to do the killing. Blake doesn't appear to be that stupid. Stupid enough though to openly say that he wished that she were dead. Also having played mainly low-lifes and criminals didn't help either.

The jury took nine days to decide that he was innocent, that there was no conclusive proof that he did it, or conspired to kill her. Now, Bonny's daughter is going to bring a wrongful death suit against Blake. What does she hope to get out of it? The man is completely broke. A civil trial doesn't mean that Blake will go to prison. If all she wants is a jury to say that he was responsible, that's going to cost her a lot of money. If she's smart, she'll try to move past this and go on with her life.

Scott Peterson, as far as I'm concerned is scum. Whether or not he's scum that should be put to death, I don't know. I'm not too keen on capital punishment. If that makes me a wimpy liberal, so be it. Perhaps if this were the 19th century, I might feel differently. Back then, if you committed a crime, there was no sitting in prisons for years, they took you out and hung you. Now, Peterson will sit in prison while his lawyers file appeal after appeal.

Truthfully, I don't know what his parents were thinking of hiring Mark Geros. If he couldn't get Winona Ryder off a shoplifting charge, why did they think he would be good in a murder trial? They would have been better off hiring Johnny Cochran. I personally think that he did it. He was clearly a serial adulterer, who felt trapped in a marriage with a child on the way, and instead of divorce, chose to murder his wife and then lie about it to his mistress.

Very dumb, Scott. He's shown absolutely no remorse at his wife and child's death. No emotion whatsoever.

It bothers me when defendants don't take the stand at their trials. How am I supposed to believe that you didn't do it, if you are not willing to get up on the stand to testify? If your lawyer thinks it's a risk to put you on the stand, that's not good.

Lil Kim, not the brightest bulb on the planet. Should never have lied to the police, but she comes from a background where trusting cops doesn't come easy.

Dominick Dunne just goes to prove that you have to be very careful what you say about someone on television, particularly during an investigation into a murder. It'll come back to bite you on the ass.

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