Hans Reiser – Verdict Reached (Correction)

After deliberating for three days the jury has come back with a verdict of murder in the 1st degree. I am shell-shocked. I am not so shocked that they found him guilty, but guilty of premeditated murder? In my opinion, this jury was swayed by the fact that they absolutley did not like Hans Reiser. They spent six months with him. The judge even showed his disdain towards Reiser while court was in session. This seems fairly unprofessional to me.

Sentencing will be today, I think. I’ll post it as soon as I find out. There is also the appeals process. The folks on the In Session forum don’t hold much weight for an appeal to be granted. The legal heads in their say that in order for an appeal to happen there would have had to have been an error made during the trial. An error that if reveresed would change the outcome of the trial. Except maybe for the gag order on Sean Sturgeon, I don’t think there was such an error. However, the judge does have the authority to change the verdict to a lesser charge if he feels the jury made an error. Again, my legal heads at the forum don’t think this will happen either.

Correction: I didn’t read the article clearly. A sentencing date will most likely be scheduled today.

Some of the jurors are starting to speak out in interviews. I’ll be keeping a look out for those and post back what they say. It’s going to be very interesting to find out how they decided upon premeditation. I have had nothing but doubt during this entire case. And I have been following this from the beginning. However, I have been following this trial from the comfort of my living room. I haven’t had to spend six months in a courtroom suffering through days of mind numbing testimony.

There is one little tid-bit that I found interesting after the verdict was read. The attorneys were asked asked the following question:

Both sides were asked if Reiser would be afforded any leniency should he divulge where his wife’s body is.

“We’ll have to talk to the prosecutor about that,” Du Bois said. “I mean, that would have to be something the prosecutor would have to participate in.”

Hora said, “There are no scheduled discussions, and so the only discussion that I’m looking forward to is the discussion about when the sentencing date will be.”

My socks would be completely blown off if Hans came forward and told us where the body was and how he did it.
Here is a link to Wired’s Threat Level with a video of the verdict being read.