Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Murder trial and reality

A YOUNG ARIZONA man was found guilty Monday of murder. You can click here to read my Quincy Journal followup story, with comments from the prosecutor and the victim's family.

Justice for Ray Jr
It took jurors only 90 minutes to deliberate. I thought it would take at least four or five hours. But they'd been there for almost two weeks and perhaps they'd figured it out. Basically it means the verdict was a slam dunk - I've sat through much longer deliberations for cases just as strong.

The thing that scares me about testimony is the fact we have young people in Quincy running around with guns. And by young, I mean 17 years old. I'm not oblivious and I know we have issues in the Q-Town, but not only were they doing all this thug stuff, they were doing it right where we live. One of the main witnesses lived a block from us in Calftown. And the guys involved were smoking and drinking at a house two blocks away just hours before the shooting.

It's real life. And it scares the bleep out of me.

Our criminal justice system is not about the truth, but how we perceive the truth. It was painfully obvious that there was a lot of lying going on during the investigation into the murder, and even more obvious there was lying from the witness stand late last week. It doesn't get you anywhere and the jury saw right through it, and in the end, it sealed the murderer's fate.

I cannot begin to understand how Ray Humphrey Sr. feels when it comes to losing his son. He sat through the entire trial and how he did it, I'll never know. He said last night he was satisfied justice was served. If my child was murdered .... I can't even think about it.

A sad chapter in Quincy ends, but the pain of losing a 12-year-old boy doesn't. Even if we didn't know Ray Humphrey Jr., a little bit of us died, too.

His father is working hard to keep the memory of Ray Jr. alive, check it out and be a part of it.

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