No Indictment in Queens Bus Stop Killing

The saying goes that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. No indictment in this case means the Trini guy was justified. I believe justice was SERVED here. Too bad for the girl. I'm sure she wasn't as innocent as everyone thinks she is.

If they couldn't even get it past the indictment phase, the case must have been very weak and there couldn't have been much questioning it was self defense. This man obviously didn't have much money, so his legal defense was ordinary at best. It even says in the NY Times article that he might be facing deportation.

Have you guys actually read the articles? I don't think a single one of them said the girl was assaulting him. The accounts say she was trying to cool things down. But why am I wasting my time? You guys already have your minds made up and you can't be bothered with anything as trivial as facts.

Holy crap, the guy overreacted pulling a knife? Are you insane? If you have a crowd of angry people coming at you, I would hope fight or flight would kick in and I would be willing to bet, in the same situation, that I am not the fastest person in that mob. The grand jury was right on this one and the Trinidadian accent is entirely pertinent to this release. Yes, it is 'racist' in the sense that it is pulling race into case, but it is not racist in the pejorative sense that we toss it around today. You're mixing terms. It paints an entirely different picture of the situation: imagine if you had stuck in Brooklyn working class accent, or Southern accent. You would have Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in the fray in that case.

Micro-ethnic racism makes me smile.

The dead girl was assaulting the guy, he was defending himself. She was killed while committing a crime herself. I wouldn't say she deserved to die, but her own actions led to her death. I don't see how this is a great injustice. Unfortunate, maybe, but not injust.

This would not have happened if the people involved had guns.

Wait, come to think of it I bet you're talking about the more recent and much-less-famous Howard Beach case where the black guys looking rob a car got beat up by the white drug dealer in the Escalade. Am I right? In that case you're just too young to know the difference. Read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Griffith_%28manslaughter_victim%29

Wow. Just goes to show you that the bus sucks.

And that guy had one hell of a lawyer.

You obviously know nothing about the Howard Beach case, probably something you heard tossed around in conversation, then misintepreted and regurgitated.

It may be the law, but it's hardly justice. Even if the crowd overreacted to his epithets, he likewise overreacted by pulling out a knife then using it. He didn't care that he might kill somebody with it. I also don't see any expression of remorse. It's all "Why me?" What about the dead girl?

Everything you need to know about me? It tells you that I read more than just the headlines of newspapers and blogs. You must not be familiar with those cases. Sad that this young person perished; but keep in mind she was part of a mob that set upon and attacked someone.

More likely the Trinidadian thing is about the difference in "black" culture. I imagine the guy started on a you-American-blacks-are-lazy-cut-lines-don't-work rant. I heard it many times. People from the Islands believe it and have no problem saying it.

As for the grand jury ... It takes 12 out of 23 members to indict. And you are asked indict if you think there's probably cause. You hear at most 3 hrs of evidence and testimony. The guy was obviously convincing to the jury and the case was weak.

That's justice. It didn't fail.

What's wrong with protecting yourself, your property, and your neighborhood from lowlife admitted criminal thugs?

Regarding this case, I agree with the decision by the grand jury. The mob overreacted (like always, ie; doll head) and the defendant was only trying to protect himself. Good call.

I don't understand how this is a failure of the legal system; did he not have a right to defend himself against an attacker?

Perhaps he hadn't "spat racist epithets," but the crowd that attacked him believed he had. Perhaps they misunderstood him due to his accent. It's been known to happen.

Howard Beach was "fighting back"? Wow. I think you just told us everything we need to know about you.

#3: If that's true, then the defense is as racist as the defendant; the lawyer is asking people to revise their judgment of the defendant based on the implied color of his skin.

Aside from the fact that stabbing a 15-year-old girl to death is rarely justified as "successfully fight[ing] back against African American attackers."

The mention of the Trinidadian accent lets you know that the defendant is also a person of color. When white people successfully fight back against African American attackers, it's considered racist*.

*see Goetz, Bernard or Howard Beach

sad, once again the american legal system fails.

Why did his lawyer think "his Trinidadian accent" was pertinent information? Do lawyers usually use legally important phrases like "her Ivy League droll" or "his staccato Cockney"?