Can Vang get a fair trial?

[Steff]

http://www.kstptv5.com/article/stories/S8204.html?cat=1

 

 

HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - A Minnesota man accused of fatally shooting six deer hunters and wounding two others in northwestern Wisconsin can receive a fair trial in Sawyer County, prosecutors argued Wednesday.

 

In documents filed in Sawyer County Circuit Court, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said Chai Soua Vang and his attorneys have not produced sufficient evidence to warrant a change of venue.

 

Vang's attorneys filed motions in March seeking to move the September trial, contending racial prejudice and overwhelming media publicity would prevent the Hmong man from getting a fair trial.

 

Lautenschlager also asked a judge to limit the number of cameras in the courtroom during Vang's September trial and to ban people from taking pictures or videotaping witnesses who do not want to be photographed.

 

"The state will identify the witnesses who have requested that their images not be recorded or photographed or their voices recorded," the attorney general wrote in her motions filed Wednesday.

 

Vang's attorneys say media reports have referred to the shootings as the "Columbine of the Northwoods" and the area's "own 9/11" - publicity so prejudicial Vang cannot get a fair and impartial trial in the area, according to their motions, which refer to the Colorado school shootings of 1999 and the terrorist attacks of 2001.

 

In a 28-page response to the defense motion, Lautenschlager argued Vang submitted few examples of prejudicial publicity and he made only general allegations of community prejudice against him.

 

The media coverage of the killings was mostly informational and not inflammatory, although it obviously aroused strong emotions, prosecutors wrote.

 

Vang failed to show the extensive media coverage has "utterly corrupted the trial atmosphere such as to constitute a constitutional violation," prosecutors said. "While Vang may seek an uninformed jury, he is not entitled to one. The Constitution only guarantees him an unbiased one."

 

Vang also has not provided sufficient evidence to show Sawyer County residents are racially prejudiced against him, prosecutors said.

 

"The mere fact that racist comments have been made by some extremely small number of persons in no way establishes that Sawyer County residents generally hold such views or that they cannot be fair and impartial jurors," prosecutors said.

 

Lautenschlager said even if the judge decides the jury should come from another county, the trial should stay in Sawyer County to accommodate the victims' families and the many prosecution witnesses, who include two survivors of the shootings and several other witnesses.

 

Circuit Court Judge Norman Yackel scheduled a hearing on the motions for June 8.

 

Vang, of St. Paul, Minn., has pleaded not guilty to murdering six hunters and wounding two others after a confrontation over trespassing Nov. 21. Vang told investigators one of the white hunters fired the first shot after taunting Vang with racial slurs, a claim two of the survivors denied, according to court records.

 

In other documents filed Wednesday, prosecutors also opposed Vang's attempt to ban them from using an alleged confession Vang gave to investigators the day after his arrest.

 

None of Vang's constitutional rights were violated in obtaining the statements, prosecutors said.

 

"Vang wrote that he wished to speak to investigators and he did not want a lawyer," according to the documents filed Wednesday.

 

Vang initially told investigators at the Sawyer County Jail he didn't want to talk to them and wanted to see a lawyer and then he changed his mind and later signed a confession, court documents said.

 

"This was not the product of a coercive environment," prosecutors wrote Wednesday, "in which investigators utilized mental stratagems to induce a statement. Rather, Vang's statement was the product of his free and unconstrained will."

 

Vang, who speaks fluent English, was read his Miranda rights twice, and he voluntarily made incriminating comments, including that he ran after some of the victims and shot them in the back, prosecutors said.

 

Vang is being held in Sawyer County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.

 

In other documents filed Wednesday, prosecutors:

 

-Opposed a defense motion seeking to seal a separate motion of unknown content. Prosecutors asked the judge to order that the document be unsealed. Attorneys for Vang submitted a sealed envelope in March, saying that keeping the content secret was "necessary to ensure the integrity of the defense pretrial investigation."

 

-Opposed a defense motion to throw out one of two counts of attempted murder of Lauren Hesebeck. Prosecutors said Vang tried to kill Hesebeck in two separate incidents.

 

 

 

quote:

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Vang, who speaks fluent English, was read his Miranda rights twice, and he voluntarily made incriminating comments, including that he ran after some of the victims and shot them in the back, prosecutors said.

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Seems like it will be fair to me.

[Texsox]

Juries are asked to just listen to the testimony and make their decision based on what they hear in the courtroom. It will be impossible for those jurists to not remember what they heard and saw in the day and weeks after the murders in the media. I also believe it would be impossible for them to not have an opinion before sitting on the jury.

 

Understanding all that. The jury should come from that pool. I don't think juries should ever be moved. Sorry Vang, you will have an uphill battle.

[Nokona]

I luuuuuuuuuuuv Hayward. /hawk.

 

In reality, the guy obviously killed 6 people. Do not pass go. Go directly to jail.