Alberto Martinez Update

Here's the latest on the case against accused murderer Alberto Martinez.

Soldier's murder trial faces delay

The trial for a soldier accused of murdering two officers in Iraq in summer 2005 could be delayed another 40 days by prosecutors seeking to strengthen their case.

Jury selection in the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez of Troy, N.Y., is scheduled to begin on June 24. Prosecutors at a Fort Bragg pre-trial hearing on Thursday said they need a key piece of evidence that was suppressed in the fall: statements that Martinez made to investigators shortly after an explosion that killed Capt. Phillip T. Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen of the New York National Guard.

Martinez is accused of detonating a mine to kill the officers. There has been testimony that he clashed with Esposito, his commanding officer, and faced a reprimand — which could cost him a rank and pay — for illegally giving military-owned computer printers to an Iraqi. If convicted, he could get the death penalty.

Other developments in the case:

The prosecutors asked Henley to permit a closed-circuit video feed of the court-martial be transmitted to upstate New York so the family and friends of Martinez can more conveniently observe the case. The trial is expected to run approximately five to eight weeks, not including the time required for jury selection.

Defense lawyers asked for all autopsy photos to be suppressed because images of the men’s wounds might mislead and inflame the jury. Prosecutors argued they need the photos to describe the officers’ injuries to the jury.

And the case keeps dragging on, as Martinez's lawyers look for any technicality they can find to avoid facing the facts about this case; facts that hang a big "guilty" sign around their clients neck. In the meantime, the families of the two murdered men continue to suffer through delay after delay, unable to move on with their lives. It's been three years, for crying out loud. Whatever happened to "Justice delayed is justice denied?"

Race and Unity and Flags, Oh My!

Barrack Obama gave his big speech today, the one that was supposed to distance him from the nutty hate-filled rantings of his longtime (20 years) pastor and spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright. The picture above shows Obama giving said speech (and no, it's NOT an AP photo). Check out all those flags. I count four in that picture. Wow. Barrack Obama must love this country. Either that, or he thinks most of us are friggin' idiots that are easily manipulated by careful staging and ornamentation.

POETIC JUSTICE

It looks like Eliot Spitzer's political career has reached its end. Some of the press are labeling this a sex scandal. Sex scandal? Eliot Spitzer wasn't--as far as we know--having an affair. He was paying women to have sex with him. That's illegal in every state in the US except Nevada. Don't like that law? Then change it. But until then, what he was doing is a crime. A crime he had prosecuted as Attorney General--at least twice. It's also worth remembering that he engaged in some serious financial gymnastics in order to pay for these services. Said gymnastics may very well be illegal.

The real tragedy here is the pain it brings to Eliot Spitzer's family, especially his daughters. They're going to have to come to terms with the reality that daddy apparently thinks of women as a commodity to be bought or rented. Sad.

The pain it is causing his family aside, this is a fitting end to Eliot Spitzer's political career. After all, he is a man who made his reputation by bullying; and by destroying, and threatening to destroy, the reputations of others. This is well illustrated by Alan Reynolds' 2005 article Trial by Press Release:

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched a complaint against the insurance brokerage arm of Marsh & McClellan last November with his usual flamboyant press release accusations of "widespread corruption."

Unsurprisingly, Marsh recently settled in the usual way -- by writing a big check and doing whatever Mr. Spitzer asked. That included replacing its chief executive officer with an old friend of Mr. Spitzer's, Michael Cherkasky.

There was no trial, of course. Writing in Slate, Daniel Gross noted "Spitzer doesn't like taking cases to trial. Instead, he has developed a more powerful tactic: He exploits the threat of stock declines and business losses to force industries to change.... He didn't simply indict. He issued press releases."

Trial-by-press-release circumvents truth and justice. No judge ever separates "findings of fact" from fictional prosecutorial accusations. The accused never get to face their accusers (usually competitors). And no jury is ever asked if Mr. Spitzer's complaints have been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Poetic justice, that's what I call it. It's just too bad so many people had to be hurt in the rpocess.