Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
As a side note, there is no doubt in my mind that there will be an appeal. I can't help but think that the jury convicted more on the emotion and on Rafferty acting like an a$$ during the trial then on the actual evidence.
It just seems to me that some of the revisits during jury description were looking for reasons to convict as oppossed to looking at the evidence of it.
To be honest the concern is with the woman changing her story during her testimony. Little in the way of forensic evidence of an actual sexual assault due to the condition of Tori's body.
A lack of evidence, a lack of reason (Because of the laptop being excluded)
Poor witnesses.
I have little doubt that this will go through a re-trial, and I have little doubt that with the lack of the laptop evidence in front of a different jury that the conviction becomes a lot less different.
The jury got it right thank god, but reading back through what happened in the trial, I'm amazed that it happened.
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There probably will be; but jury findings of fact are entitled to a good deal of deference on appellate review, and given that there is considerable circumstantial evidence tying him to the crime, along with the testimony of an eyewitness (who was found as a fact to be telling the truth when she said Rafferty did it and to be lying when she said he didn't) I think it's unlikely that this verdict will be overturned.
Sometimes the justice system works very well. It's not perfect, and it's rarely pretty, but this is one of those times that we should all just agree that the court got it right and not obsess over the minutiae of what evidence did and didn't get in.