Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
That’s the standard that must be met by the prosecution’s evidence to convict in a criminal trial, regardless of how horrendous the crime or suspected guilt of the accused. Just ask some guy named O.J. Or maybe Demeatrius Montgomery, currently on trial for the brutal slayings of police officers Jeff Shelton and Sean Clark.
The prosecution titled into the first days of its case this week with testimony from two witnesses who said they saw somebody talking with two police officers at the Timber Ridge Apartments, shortly before gunfire erupted that awful night in March 2007. But neither witness could identify the man talking to the officers and neither saw the shots fired, according to this report from WCNC.
Another witness testified that he saw the shooting, but was unable to identify the person who pulled the trigger. The witness, however, testified to having seen Montgomery earlier in the evening, dressed in clothing very similar to the one worn by the shooter. Another witness testified to having seen Montgomery at a convenience store near Timber Ridge Apartments on the day of the shootings.
The prosecution’s opening earlier this week included gut-wrenching and compelling testimony from the police officers’ widows, while an assistant DA laid a foundation for the case that had Montgomery at Timber Ridge Apartments the day of the shooting, drinking and listening to rap music, notably the track “Murda Man” by Pastor Troy, spotting the police officers and walking across the parking lot to a position where he would have confronted them.
The quote from TCO:
“While Jeff and Sean were doing their jobs, this defendant was getting geared up, geared up for a plan that he was about to be put into place,” the prosecutor said.
Proving he was getting geared up is one thing; proving he pulled the trigger and savagely murdered two police officers execution-style, quite another. The latter becomes even more difficult with no eyewitnesses.
Prosecutors say they have DNA evidence that will be presented linking Montgomery to the murder weapon; the defense says neither his fingerprints nor DNA was found on the gun’s trigger.
Toss in a detective on the case admitting he destroyed and plagiarized notes during the investigation, add another potential suspect who looks remarkably similar to Montgomery and was fingered for the shootings by a jailhouse snitch; it becomes a potentially disturbing equation for reasonable doubt.
I hope it doesn’t add up that way. I hope that the CMPD got the right man, that the prosecution can prove it beyond reasonable doubt, and that we can all feel good about a cop-killer thug rotting in jail for the rest of his life.
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