News Update 09.19.07
North Carolina
A tentative June 1, 2008 trial date has been set for Timothy Hennis. Hennis will stand trial in a Ft. Bragg military court for a 1985 triple murder of which he was acquitted in civilian court. There will be a motions hearing in January, at which time the judge might decide to push the trial back if necessary.
Meanwhile, attorneys for Sgt. William J. Kreutzer, Jr. were in court today at Ft. Bragg. Kreutzer was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for a shooting during a training run that killed one paratrooper and injured 18 others. His conviction was reversed in 2005 due to ineffective assistance of counsel and bad rulings by the judge. Kreutzer will be retried in April 2008.
Doctors at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh say that Michael Charles Hayes is no longer mentally ill, and no longer a danger to others. Hayes has been kept at Dix since 1989, when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity after killing four people and wounding five others. The Forsyth County man believed he was shooting at demons. Hayes’ attorney is concerned that he may still be too ill to be released.
Elsewhere
The planned execution of Jerome Harbison has been delayed after a federal judge ruled that Tennessee‘s lethal injection protocol violates the 8th Amendment by posing a “substantial risk of unnecessary pain.” The judge also criticized a corrections official for ignoring the recommendations of a committee organized by the Governor to review such procedures. More here. You can read the order here.
The fine folks at the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law have put together a resource page for those interested in learning more about lethal injection and/or the related litigation going on in various states.
I am just now reading about the Hennis case. What an interesting chain of events. How can the government be allowed to REenlist you. So they can kill you. Doesn’t QUITE seem right to me
In response to the shooting at Bragg:
What a coward!!! I was 4/325 AIR Scout Platoon and present at Towel Stadium that morning. What he did was just cowardly, plain and simple. I remeber Kreutzer well. When I was a “cherry” (new guy) one of my buddies was his roomate. Yeah he was a little strange but does that give him the right to do what he did. I say let the verdict stand.. Hell take him out back and shoot him. Save the taxpayers money!! He wasn’t under any more stress than other NCO’ s I served with. Funny how he waited until we were in Physical Training Clothes to open fire. Why not try that on a Live Fire exercise were things may have been on a more level playing field… I will never forget that morning for the rest of my life..WHAT A COWARD!! Any other old Falcons out there give me a mail amisonseafood@gtcom.net Spc. Amison, Ottice 4/325 AIR
how could they even convict Tim Hennis again for the same exact crime by law since a jury has found him not guilty he can not be tried for the same crime twice. I bet if we would but OJ Simpson back on trial for killing his wife it would be all over the news and the NAACP would throw a fit. all the evidence pointed away from Tim Hennis its simply because how co-operative he was with police that the immediately said that he done it.
Hennis is being retried as by the military law. That is different than civilian law. We discussed the trial in my Family Law class in Texas. The DNA was inclusive back in the Eighties. They looked at the DNA again and it was Tim’s. Since he was tired in civilian court and can’t be tired again that way. He was reinstated to the military and the military will be able to take it to court. It is like being tired in county court and Federal court. I am doing reserch on this for my class.
In the movie we watched we all thought that he was innocent. Since a blue van was seen. The lady throwing newspapers described a different man coming out of the house. Owen kept changing his story since he made a deal with the prosecutor. The phone calls, the 2 post cards, and the man that could pass as Tim’s twin brother. It all goes back to DNA. It is more advanced now then back in the 80′s. The seaman and blood samples we retested and it came out to be Tim’s. That is why they are retesting DNA for other rapes and murders and more innocent men get out and put the guilty men inside where they belong. That is what I am learning in my Law classes right now. I am going to try and do some research to see what the real deal is.
I fail to see where the military has any authority here. This did not happen on a military base or property.Doesn’t Posse Cumatos apply here ? Since when does the military conduct Military Courts Martial for offenses in the civilian sector ? And to place him Back on active duty just to charge him with a crime of which they have no juristiction ???
I see the police and courts in Fayetteville are just as incompetent and crooked as they were 35 years ago.
Has anyone ever examined the similarities between these crimes?: The Eastburn Killings in 1985, the murder of Beverly Jaye Potter Mintz, 1987, and the murder of Kathi Goff Kennedy, 1994. These all happened in NC. Jaye Mintz’s case is a cold case and so is Kennedys.
Jaye Mintz like Mrs. Eastburn, had put an ad out in the newspaper (selling a waterbed). Kennedy had recently moved into an apartment. Could she have done something similar to putting out an ad or answering one? Jaye lived in Leland and Kennedy lived in Kernersville. I need a map, but think Kernersville is also in the eastern part like Leland and Fayetteville.