TheAgitator.com
No Death Penalty for Ryan Frederick
Friday, June 20th, 2008Special Prosecutor Paul Ebert announced yesterday that he won’t seek the death penalty against Ryan Frederick, the Chesapeake, Virginia man who killed a police detective during a botched drug raid last January.
Ebert said Frederick’s lack of any prior criminal record and the fact that he shot just once would make it difficult to prove the aggravated battery necessary to get a death sentence.
Of course, both of those facts are also pretty good indicators that Frederick didn’t intend to kill Det. Jarrod Shivers in the first place.
Stangely, Ebert cited Frederick’s age as another reason he has decided not to seek the death penalty. Frederick is 28.
Prior coverage of the Frederick case here.
The first crack appears…
It’s sad that not having a record is part of the reson the charge is being lowered, as opposed to the facts about what happened in this particular case. What happens when cops unjustly invade the home of a man or woman with a record? We’re the world’s largest jailor of its own citizens, more and more of us will have them. Shouldn’t allow cops to attack those with records more freely.
This is another poor reason to lower the charge. Anyone invading my home will be shot until I believe the threat is over. If I wait to shoot to ask if it’s a cop invading my home like a criminal, and it turns out be a criminal, I and my wife may be killed. Or if it’s a criminal dressed like a cop my wife and I may also die. Shooting until the threat is stopped is a responsible thing to do. It should not be used to justify a death penalty charge. Being shot at repeatedly should be a cost of doing business in a free country when you invade homes.
I’m sure he never intended to kill anyone. After all, he didn’t invade anyone’s home, just defended his.
I think this is a case of the prosecutor knowing it is a railroad job and he will have a hard time getting a jury to agree to kill this kid. So he is not going for death because that would lesson his ability to destroy this kid’s entire life.
I think dropping the death penalty is an attempt to make it easier to get a conviction. There is a lot of sympathy for Ryan, and rightly so. It would be harder to get a conviction with the death penalty on the table imo.
Given that there was no significant amount of marijuana found and this case is really about the shooting, it’s pretty messed up that the burden of proof is on the person whose home was invaded and not on those who invaded it.
So when is the Prosecutor going to ask for a change of venue?
This isn’t a surprise… IIRC the prosecutors didn’t even ask the grand jury capital murder, so they were obviously never planning on trying for the death penalty.
This is the first bit of sanity in this crazy case… hopefully there will be a few more.
Off topic, but if you haven’t read this freakonomics post, you might find it interesting: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/how-cops-really-want-to-police/#comment-628363
Do they not like Radley over at pilotonline? Someone asked:
“I found the WTKR story with the link…but where is the link that tells of a second man coming forward? This man was known to “have a grudge” against Ryan?”
Myself and someone else posted the link to the story over here and those posts disappeared but other links r permitted to stay. Whats the deal with that?
Also, seems there is a message board run by Ryans friends and family. I even found a link to the “alleged” snitches myspace page there.
http://antipolicemisconduct.meetup.com/37/messages/boards/
Chance (#8), nice link to the freakonomics blog article. It provides good fodder against the argument that the police are so highly professional that they deserve extraordinary deference when adjudicating their actions and judgment. That’s a theme of justice Scalia that Radley often hits and those police quotes (hopefully by cops who are not representative of their peers) bolster just how poorly justified that deference can be.
“Help me murder this fuckin’ kid! I need to get re-elected!”
To echo Beck and the boys at the (apparently now defunct) NT; it is fundamentally a contest of main force, and an innocent man is *not murdered* because his would-be killer cannot sufficiently cover his ass to make sure that when the needles are pumping in the poison, he’ll still be sitting high and pretty as a very fine and upstanding public official.
It’s good that the fellow won’t be murdered by these bastards; the reason why is making me sick.
Sad for everyone all around. Think the police really screwed this one up good and are trying to figure out a way to save some face by prosecuting this kid at all. My heartfelt condolences to the family but I hope the kid walks.