Los Angeles, CA--Due process and our dubious criminal justice system is really not doing well.
Exonerations are on the rise as exhaustive post conviction investigations expose police, crime lab or prosecutorial misconduct.
It takes decades to expose wrongful convictions as these victims rot in our prisons.
This is not about reducing the penalties that criminals deserve. This is about pure and simple justice and fairness.
Prosecutors have been given excessive powers in recent years that they nearly always abuse. Juries almost never hear about the checkered backgrounds of witnesses and so-called victims. The backgrounds of the accused however are nearly always disclosed.
We routinely convict people in circumstantial cases where the jury guesses guilt or innocence. If a jury has to guess, that should dictate an acquittal but that’s just not how it works.
I have worked with the best and worst lawyers. Even lawyers considered to be excellent, too often overlook or simply dismiss important evidence. Egos too often obstruct otherwise good lawyers. It’s a human reality.
Usually but not always money buys a better legal defense.
Defense investigation makes or breaks achieving justice. Unfortunately the vast majority of people practicing that occupation are incredibly unqualified. They couldn’t find their asses with both hands and a flashlight.
Too many private investigators spend their time plagiarizing the more attractive websites of their competitors! The formal training of cops in every discipline of evidence collection, interviews, interrogations along with the sciences and use of today’s sweeping computer data is just not generally available in kind to private investigators.
Without real due process and fair trials we are no better than dispensing a form of Fake Justice.
We need to keep juries far away from Google, Fake News and those outside influences. However that’s absolutely impossible in this day and age.
This is not a Liberal-Conservative issue. This is about what might happen to you or a loved one.
Compton, CA—I was simply curious as to why cops charged Rap mogul, Marion
“ Shug” Knight with Murder, Attempted Murder and two counts of fleeing the
Scene of an Accident.
Just what was the crime here I wondered?
I carefully watched the news reports and understood at least I think may
have happened. I also went to the scene
at daybreak looked for surveillance cameras, took photos and overhead drone
video of that Tam’s Burgers drive in where this happened.
Even at daybreak Tam’s was open for business.On a Friday night this place is jumping and
the small parking lot is always congested.
Very simply some kind of argument broke out and Knight who was inside of
his truck and clearly wanted to escape from Tam’s Burgers.
Knight has been shot and wounded on at least three occasions.He was also in the car with Tupac Shakur when
he was murdered in Las Vegas.
What I can’t help but notice, is that Knight never seems to have a gun
but he’s a wildly popular target for lots of very violent armed men.I think it sucks to be Shug Knight simply because
danger follows him everywhere.
When soldiers are sent into combat they become hypersensitive to
movement, sounds and of course weapons.They sometimes become irrational because they are suffering from
PTSD.Considering what a bullet magnet
Knight has become over the past few years is he somehow immune from this kind
of phenomena?
Arguing Knight’s own criminal past has no real relevance here since he
like all of us understand fear and our own instinct for survival.
When we think we are under a deadly attack we all will become desperate
and will do whatever it takes to survive.
Were there deadly weapons in that vicinity on the night in
question?If you understand Compton, the
African-American culture and the local crime rate the answer can only be yes!Just because some witnesses claim there were
no weapons does not make it so!
What really matters is what Shug Knight believed he saw!None of us are inside of Knight’s head and
can know that for sure.
Is it that difficult to believe that any of the weapons present in the
drive in just disappeared before the cops arrived?
Do we really think that the young men present would simply somehow confess to
having weapons and or threatening Knight once the police arrived on the scene?
What happened is obvious at least to me.Knight felt he was under attack and understandably panicked. He had no
time or room to safely drive away from the danger.He raced the vehicle forward, backward and
the unfortunate souls in the way were struck by Knight’s truck.
Did Knight deliberately kill or injure anyone?I just don’t see even the hint of intent. The
lot was congested, and it’s surrounded by a brick wall but for the narrow
driveways. Knight was unable to escape in the heat of things without accidently
running over the two victims.
An additional question must be begged and that is why didn’t the victims
move away from Knight’s truck?
None of us were there and can only guess what happened.
As for video of the event, I’m convinced there is none that will make a
case for murder.Whatever the cops have
they are hiding from everyone.If
they really had video that made their case the cops would have gleefully released it to
the media.
Let’s examine the fleeing the scene of an accident charges.The law only requires us to stop and exchange
information as well as rendering aid to the injured.
Knight is a well-known celebrity in Compton.His information was exchanged to everyone
present merely by his appearance. Knight is no physician and knew that people
present would be calling 911 to get help for anyone injured. Everyone present had cell phone.
Knight had no legal duty to call or wait for police!He had and still does a right to remain
silent!The hit and run allegations are
preposterous especially if you understand that Knight felt threatened.
I don’t think any of us would be foolish to
stay in that parking lot waiting for cops to show up under those frightening conditions.
This is clearly a case of cops and prosecutors hoping they can use the illusion
of a crime to put someone they hate behind bars for life.
We live in a nation that boasts about its liberty and justice for
all.We claim that our justice system is
fair and that the accused get’s the benefit of the doubt.
The Shug Knight murder prosecution will be a serious test of that
system.Will Knight get the benefit of
the reasonable doubt?Will the state be
forced to put forth evidence of Knight’s actual intent to harm?I don’t think they have any sufficient proof of
intent.
We will all have to slowly watch this evidence and testimony unfold in various hearings and perhaps at a trial.As a long
time licensed defense investigator, I must find my way through lies and twisted
evidence. There will be no shortage of that here!
The Shug Knight case promises to be a challenge for the defense.Frankly I’m disappointed that the cops did
not investigate further before making the arrest.
I will keep an open mind for some convincing evidence but I just don’t
see any on the horizon.I certainly
would be able to help Knight if I was his defense investigator.
The lot was nearly empty at daybreak when I made my visit and we can only assume the
driveways were blocked with cars coming and going in this popular place during the altercation.
