Mistrials & Recusals?

Unfortunately, not everything in the criminal justice system goes according to plan or script. What about the Alfonso Jarman trial? We thoroughly believe Jarmon is guilty of cold-blooded murder and should spend the rest of his life behind bars. Yet, did he receive a fair trial?

That we can't answer. We can't answer yes or no to the question of the jury simply tossing aside the closing remarks of the prosecution merely because the defense was not able to complete its remarks. 

Yes, the trial cost money and the citizens of Lauderdale County lost money and time with the semi-aborted trial. Nevertheless, it doesn't take a swami to predict Jarmon will at some point receive a new trial. We predict that he will then be found guilty again, with the taxpayers and the victim's family being the losers in the case.

That is assuming Jarmon's next court-appointed attorney cares as much about clients as Jean Darby did...

*****

*****

Now, a quick look at recusals: Here's a survey floating about FB. We've checked and submitted our response, but such surveys and similar petitions rarely count for much.

Judge Jackie Hatcher Recusal?

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about murder. In a semi-perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about avoiding the appearance of evil. Does anyone out there think this world is even 10% perfect when it comes to the justice system?

Yes, we firmly believe Chris Martin deserves a new trial. Will he get one because of this perceived issue with Hatcher? No.

Think how many Facebook friends you have; do you know them all or are some friends of friends that you simply accepted? Look at the FB pages of elected officials; how many of their "friends" do you think they know personally? Think they accepted some as an easy route to a vote? As cheap advertising?

For all we know, Jackie Hatcher could be bosom beaux with the Grant Campbell family or she could be a waiving acquaintance or she could be someone who simply accepted a friend request from Grant Campbell's aunt years ago without thinking twice about it.

Colbert is a small county. Try playing "Seven Degrees of Insert Your Name Here" and see if you can find someone you're not connected to in some manner. That being said, we have seen some interesting recusals and would love to know the basis behind some of them...

*****

For those who aren't fans of Hammer films, please feel free to skip this:

Judge Jackie Hatcher's Crush/Written on the Wind

The crush? It's Candy Crush. It seems several witnesses in the Chris Martin murder trial are willing to testify that Jackie Hatcher was playing Candy Crush on an I-Pad while the trial was in session. Was she? If any of our readers have had a similar experience while testifying in Judge Hatcher's courtroom, please contact us.

Supporters of Chris Martin are also taking on conduct of District Attorney Bryce Graham and the Quad-Cities Daily. We'll have more on this later.

No matter how long we publish here, it seems some think one person writes all the blogs. Yesterday we published three separate opinions from three separate critics of Muscle Shoals High School. Regular readers know we are happy to publish your comments, from short to blog length. Your opinions do not have to be ours, just keep it civil.

One comment was from a person related to a recreation league basketball team coach. While we have had close associates connected to the NSA, we've never had any connected to the NBA.

While it probably does little good in some cases, we ask that you look at the top of each article, or at least the signature line, to determine who is writing what. Let's hope that will clear it up for most of our readers.

As we write this, we lack approximately a dozen likes having 6,000 on Facebook. We realize that many have more than one account. We also realize that, sadly, in the length of time we've been posting our blog links to FB, some of our fans have passed away. On the other side of the coin, approximately one-third of our readers don't access our blogs via FB, but do so directly or through e-mail.

We usually have around 3,000 readers each day and appreciate each of you. We give you a voice. We may not be able to solve your problem, but we can let you publicize and vent.

Sincere thanks to all of you.