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: the 13th juror

Doesn?t sound like much of a defense to me

"The intention was never to kill," said defense lawyer Michael Gottlieb in his opening statement. "They thought it was fun to mess with some homeless people, and that's what they set out to do."

They never meant to do serious harm, argued the lawyers for two men charged with beating a homeless man to death and viciously attacking two others with baseball bats.

Prosecutor Peter Holden told the jury that the men intended to kill because they repeatedly hit the victims in the head with baseball bats. Norris Gaynor's skull was crushed and the other two homeless men were beaten in the head, which the prosecutor said is key evidence in whether the attacks were premeditated

"Every blow had an intended purpose," Holden said.

In the law, intent is a mental attitude that can seldom by proved by direct evidence. It usually must be inferred from the circumstances.

Who would think that smashing a defenseless, sleeping person in the head with a baseball bat wasn?t intended to cause serious injury?

Full post as published by the 13th juror on September 07, 2008 (boomark / email).