<p>What an awful reminder that intimate violence is a leading cause of death for young women and a factor in most murders of women. It happens at every economic level, in every age group, and in every ethnic group. Too often, highly educated and well-off families assume that this cannot happen to their daughters, their co-workers, their friends. It can, and it does. I hope this inspires other college students and their parents to pick up the phone and call a domestic violence hotline for expert advice about exiting scary relationships.</p>
<p>Well said, Hanna. It’s a reminder we all need.</p>
<p>So now we have two members of the Virginia lacrosse team who have “accidentally” killed people…</p>
<p>I think as the mom of a son my job from very early on has been to teach him to respect himself and others, we discussed no meaning no at a very early age, in every context. Not just sexual. I also said liking and being liked by someone is a compliment and a privledge. No one is required to like you back. I hope he is a good man, I think he is, but I suspect this young man’s parents might have felt the same way about their son.</p>
<p>I will never, ever, if I live for a million years, understand why there are so many men – there’s no getting around the fact that this kind of thing happens over and over and over again – who seem to believe that women are their property, and that they’re somehow justified in perpetrating violence (whether they “intend” to kill or not) against current and former wives and girlfriends. And knowing everything I know about thousands of years of misogyny doesn’t help me understand it. And no, I don’t buy for a minute that you can blame it all on testosterone. It shouldn’t have to be this way.</p>
<p>The links to the actual affidavits have now been deleted from the news article two of us cited earlier. I swear they were there before. As of now, one of the affidavits is available on another site for a Charlottesville publication, [The</a> HooK - Charlottesville’s weekly newspaper, news magazine](<a href=“http://www.readthehook.com%5DThe”>http://www.readthehook.com). See the last, supplemental page of the affidavit. Look for the link to “affadavit” [sic] in the news story. It discusses the removal of the computer.</p>
<p>The Washington Post is quoting the affidavit now, also.</p>
<p>I wonder how long it will take before the accused retracts his confession and contends it was given under duress.</p>
<p>In Nov 2008 George Huguely was charged with resisting arrest and public intoxication. He was convicted in 2009 received 6 months probation and a $100 fine.</p>
<p>Having seen the affidavit…it’s not unusual for felony suspects to waive their Miranda rights and make uncounseled statements to the police for any number of reasons (all of them foolish from a defense counsel’s point of view). But it is a lot less common for high-SES, well-educated suspects like this one to do so. </p>
<p>As DonnaL noted, a lot of men genuinely believe that it’s their prerogative to abuse their romantic partners/exes. That can contribute to a readiness to explain to police what happened. If you think it’s ok to shake someone by the hair, and you just did it a little too hard and she accidentally died, well, you might not be too ashamed of yourself or too worried about the consequences. So why not just tell the police how it happened?</p>
<p>Where did Futurenyustudent go? Off to watch more CSI, I suppose.</p>
<p>When I see things like this, I wonder was this the first sign of violence and trouble in this kid? Was it entirely a shock to those that love him? We’ve seen his dad’s quotes in the earlier article, warning him to stay away from trouble. Now I think its also interesting that this kid was defending the accused in the prior Duke scandal. Understandable and respectful to say such a thing, but now wonder if it was coming from a sense of feeling in their shoes (been in trouble before, accused of things). </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>JustaMomof4-Interesting but most kids who get picked up for this kind of stuff in college do not go on to murder someone. This is terribly sad.</p>
<p>JustAMomOf4 – I was just wondering whether alcohol played a role in this … anger + booze = terrible regrets or worse.</p>
<p>sevmom - right but I would think this would be used by the prosecution against him.</p>
<p>you may wish to notice in the article I quoted above, that authorities say that they don’t wish to release yet the FACTS they have on the case. In other words, they have evidence, but haven’t released it to the public. But these facts obviously were cause for an arrest.</p>
<p>Exactly! Cops purposely don’t release such evidence because if some nut decided to claim responsibility, that person would need to know details about the case. By not releasing the info now, such a person can’t come forward with a story that matches the evidence.</p>
<p>“Accident with a tragic outcome” will go down with “the b*itch set me up” as one of the greatest defenses in criminal history.</p>
<p>From the looks of it so far (limited facts), instead of “accident with a tragic outcome,” it appears more like “tragic assault with an unintended outcome.” The assault wasn’t an accident. Her dying isn’t accidental, even though it may not have been the original intent. If you harm someone violently enough, there is always a chance that they could die from their injuries, even if you don’t mean for them to die.</p>
<p>After the hearing, defense lawyer Fran Lawrence told reporters that Love’s death was “not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome.”</p>
<p>When a defense lawyer admits that his client did it from the beginning, then there’s no question that he did it.</p>
<p>The reason he can be charged with first degree murder (even if he didn’t intend to kill her) is because in many states (likely Virginia) there are first degree murder laws that include “felony murder”. </p>
<p>Felony murder (a type of first degree murder) is charged when the death occurred during the commission of a felony (even if the death was unintentional). Such as driving the getaway during a robbery car and hitting a pedestrian and killing them. </p>
<p>In this case…It’s a felony to beat someone up - especially someone who is much smaller/weaker than you. So, even if his intent was just to “hurt her” or “scare her” - the death could be felony murder - first degree.</p>
<p>*A student friend of the victim reported Huguely had tried to strangle her when they first broke up, a month or more ago.</p>
<p>IF the autopsy supports these reports, one can see how his defense attorney will be able to argue “accidental”, as false as that most likely is.*</p>
<p>If he did strangle her, it will go down as pre-meditated murder because of the length of time it took to kill her - about 3-5 minutes. A prosecutor will demonstrate that to a jury using a stop watch and a dummy. During the 3-5 minutes, the attorney will say things like…hmmm 30 seconds, he could have changed his mind, but he didn’t…60 seconds, still could have changed his mind…(and so on). </p>
<p>The jury will clearly see that he did intend to kill her and could have stopped himself if he had wanted to.</p>
<p>(my friend is a death-penalty qualified attorney, so he’s told me this stuff.)</p>
<p>BTW…this was a spoiled kid…he had a “nanny”. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Hanna, I agree with much of your message–especially the part that points out that women at all SES levels can be the victims of domestic violence. </p>
<p>But, I’d also like to think that some time between the time Huguely left Ms. Love’s apartment with her computer and the time the cops showed up at his door, some sense of remorse and an awful realization of what he had done set in and he just needed to talk to someone about it. Post #93 might have it right, too. Maybe he sobered up during those hours. </p>
<p>Lets not jump to the conclusion that he felt no shame about what he had done. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I hope not.</p>
<p>a lot of men genuinely believe that it’s their prerogative to abuse their romantic partners/exes. That can contribute to a readiness to explain to police what happened. If you think it’s ok to shake someone by the hair,</p>
<p>This is VERY true… </p>
<p>My sister is a therapist and it still shocks her to hear men justify why they physically abuse their partners. “She makes me so mad, I wouldn’t do this if she didn’t make me so mad,” “She deserves this for _______” and so on. These guys are shocked to hear that their behavior is wrong on all levels no matter what the woman has said to him.</p>