Re: [Celtics' Stuff Recanted testimonies not unusual - Globe

[JB <jimmetz@xxxxxxx>]

	This smells. The story is being managed. No mention  of the charge of
intimidation by the D.A., by the witness, on the stand, only sympathy
and forgiveness for the witnesses who are either committing perjury
now, or were earlier, before the grand jury. Heads should be rolling,
or, perjury charges flying.

	My nose tells me there is a worse stink here than comes off the
Charles river, on a foggy day. I believe that this case is fixed, from
the top down, and the bottom up. It's dead! Acquittals, or even
dropped charges, for all.
	JB

	Unchain My Heart !


On Saturday, September 28, 2002, at 12:08  AM, CeltsSteve@aol.com wrote:

> Recanted testimonies not unusual
> Lawyers say Pierce case no exception
>
> By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff, 9/27/2002
>
>
> n the days after Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce was stabbed inside a
> crowded
> nightclub two years ago, three men were arrested on the word of
> eyewitnesses
> who described the brutal attack in vivid detail.  But the case has
> unraveled
> over the past week as one witness after another in Suffolk Superior
> Court has
> either recanted outright or said they could no longer say for sure who
> plunged a knife into Pierce's back and chest or smashed a bottle over
> his
> head at the Buzz Club in Boston's Theater District.Seasoned
> prosecutors and
> defense lawyers said it's not unusual for witnesses to feel
> intimidated when
> forced to confront defendants and their supporters in the glare of a
> highly
> publicized trial. Sometimes they revise their stories, leaving jurors
> to
> puzzle over which version is true.
>
> ''The fact that it's a very high-profile case in and of itself puts
> huge
> pressure on witnesses,'' said Walter Shea, a Bristol assistant district
> attorney. Few people want to take the stand in such cases, he
> said.''If they
> exaggerated before, they're much less likely to,'' Shea said. ''And if
> they
> didn't exaggerate, but don't want to be there, they might take the
> position
> that they're [being] less than truthful.''
>
> In Pierce's case, lawyers noted that some witnesses may be reluctant
> to get
> involved, especially since he recovered from his injuries. Pierce came
> to
> court with bodyguards, and some witnesses may be worried about their
> own
> safety after testifying. In cases where the victim has survived, a
> common
> reaction among witnesses, according to Shea, is, ''He lived, he's OK.
> Let it
> just pass, let me go on with my life.''
>
> In the Pierce case, a key prosecution witness refused to testify last
> week,
> then fainted in the courtroom when she was threatened with jail.
> Eventually,
> the witness, Krystal Bostick, took the stand, only to insist that she
> lied to
> a grand jury when she described how William ''Roscoe'' Ragland and
> Trevor
> Watson ambushed Pierce by a pool table.Bostick, a college student
> majoring in
> criminal justice, testified that she couldn't identify Pierce's
> knife-wielding attacker and had made up her earlier story, complete
> with
> details about the types of knives used and Ragland's boast that he was
> ''the
> only real man here, and I'll do it again.''
>
> Michael Natola, the attorney representing Bostick, said the young
> woman came
> to him more than a year ago. She never told him that she'd been
> threatened or
> intimidated, only that she wanted to recant earlier statements, he
> said.
>
> Another woman who had identified a third man, Anthony Hurston, in the
> attack
> also recanted on the stand. And other witnesses voiced doubts or
> offered
> conflicting testimony, leaving jurors to sort out the truth in a case
> that
> hinges solely on eyewitness testimony.
>
> ''The problem is there are two plausible explanations for what's going
> on,''
> said Boston criminal defense lawyer Robert Sheketoff. Jurors must
> decide
> whether witnesses changed their testimony out of fear or loyalty, or
> offered
> ''an honest reappraisal'' after initially misstating the facts.
>
> ''In my view these are classic reasonable doubt cases because how do
> you know
> which one is true?'' Sheketoff said.
>
> Boston lawyer Paul V. Kelly said the recantation of more than one
> witness in
> the Pierce case doesn't necessarily spell disaster for the
> prosecution's
> case.
>
> ''Jurors can get a pretty good sense of what's happening,'' said Kelly.
>
> While working as a federal prosecutor in 1995, Kelly successfully
> prosecuted
> the so-called Charlestown code of silence case, in which a group of
> men were
> convicted of a rash of unsolved murders and drug trafficking after
> neighborhood witnesses finally came forward after years of
> intimidation.
>
> ''It's a very frightening experience for people,'' said Kelly, adding
> that
> the state can't offer the same protections given to witnesses in
> federal
> cases.
>
> Witnesses in Massachusetts and around the country have been threatened
> and
> even killed to prevent them from testifying, but lawyers said that
> rarely
> happens. Still, witnesses often fear they or their families will face
> retaliation. Some may not want to be involved in sending someone to
> prison.
>
> Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said the state can move or
> guard
> frightened witnesses, but it's imperative that people who see crimes
> testify
> truthfully. While witnesses are seldom prosecuted for perjury, Cruz
> said he
> believes that those who lie under oath should face charges.'
>
> 'You can't allow people to flip on the stand,'' Cruz said. ''The goal
> of
> prosecutors is to find justice and that has to be premised on truthful
> testimony. It goes to the core of our entire system.'' 
>
> CeltsSteve 
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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