Picton found guilty

[P.C.]

Phew....that must have been quite an ordeal for all involved.

[Goats]

Yeah.. looks like it. It only came out as 2nd deg murder though.

  [A href="http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=272ea807-9971-433c-9e48-8e0978af8bef&k=71644"]http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=272ea807-9971-433c-9e48-8e0978af8bef&k=71644[/A]

   [DIV class=storyheader] [H2]Pickton guilty[/H2] [H4]Second-degree murder verdict on all six counts[/H4]

[DIV class=feed_details] [H4]Vancouver Sun[/H4][SPAN]Published: Sunday, December 09, 2007[/SPAN]

NEW WESTMINSTER - Robert (Willie) Pickton has been found guilty of second-degree murder - no first-degree murder as charged - in all six counts he was facing at his year-long trial, the jury foreman announced today in New Westminster Supreme Court.  The jury has been deliberating since Nov. 30 the fate of the Port Coquitlam pig farmer, who was charged with killing 26 women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.


 Pickton, 58, pleaded not guilty. This trial, which dealt with only six of those murder charges, began Jan. 22 and heard from 128 witnesses.  Pickton has been found guilty of killing Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury and Sereena Abotsway, who all disappeared in 2001; Georgina Papin and Brenda Wolfe, who vanished in 1999; and Marnie Frey who went missing in 1997.


 Family members of the victims who have been here every day for two weeks waiting for a verdict jumped at the news, many wiping tears from their eyes.

 [DIV id=imageBox][img class=thumbnail id=storyphoto height=150 alt="Robert (Willie) Pickton" src="http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/e49de462-05d5-4d38-b382-fde345371fe6/pickton.jpg?size=l" width=150 border=0]  [H4 id=storyphotocaption]Robert (Willie) Pickton[/H4] [H6 id=storyphotocredit]Felicity Don illustration[/H6]

Each time the jury pronounced Pickton not guilty of first-degree murder, family members in the courtroom called out "No!"

 Police found their partial remains on Pickton's Port Coquitlam farm, as well as personal possessions linked to four of the victims by DNA.

 

 Rest of the story in the link above.

[Sportsdude]

its second degree because they couldn't find enough evidence for 1st. Doesn't matter, he's getting life and then after 25 years they'll plop the dangerous offender tag, which means he's never getting out.


 

[P.C.]

They couldn't find enough evidence ?  Are you kidding ?

  I suppose it only matters that he will never see the light of day, but I think it's ridiculous that all verdicts were not deemed first degree.  And I'm sure that DOES matter to the families involved.

  [A href="http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/pickton/story.html?id=2c8a6875-ac20-4393-8072-fcd658b080d6&k=6217"]http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/pickton/story.html?id=2c8a6875-ac20-4393-8072-fcd658b080d6&k=6217[/A]

[Sportsdude]

so you're going to put the blame on 12 jurors?


 

[P.C.]

Well aren't they the ones that came to that verdict ?

[Sportsdude]

yes but i don't and never will understand this jump to vigilantism or hang him high attitude, its irrational thought and doesn't solve anything.

The bigger issue here, which is an issue I have not seen being talked about is why these women died. The fact that we don't have a red light district where these people can be protected from, is a tragedy. How many more prostitutes do I have to see being thrown around on the streets getting beaten?
 

[P.C.]

yes but i don't and never will understand this jump to vigilantism or hang him high attitude, its irrational thought and doesn't solve anything.


 [/DIV] That's a bit of a leap.  Finding him guilty of first degree murder would have been a 'vigilantism, hang him high attitude' ?  It's not irrational to conclude that he methodically killed those women.  

[Sportsdude]

was reading comments on news boards.  

[Goats]

Sportsdude wrote:
yes but i don't and never will understand this jump to vigilantism or hang him high attitude, its irrational thought and doesn't solve anything.

The bigger issue here, which is an issue I have not seen being talked about is why these women died. The fact that we don't have a red light district where these people can be protected from, is a tragedy. How many more prostitutes do I have to see being thrown around on the streets getting beaten?
 
 While I agree SD.. it seems strange the high road attitude coming from you. I myself dont have much faith in the system, the judges seem to make decisions on what makes them good politically or keeps them in the spotlight, not on real world observations of the consequences. Im not specifically speaking about this case in particular.

  The second part, heres the big issue. Nobody cares... Why spend more tax dollars on this when theres bigger things to throw money at? The people who want to do somehting about the prostitutes cant even agree on how to help them with the womens rights groups. One wants safe houses and districts, while the other doesnt cause they say it will promote more regular usage of the women thus causing a bigger red light district, etc etc. The drugs issue while a cross linked issue is a higher priority with the lower mainland and the province as a whole. It will be the make or break for the next election here in Van.  

[Sportsdude]

lol yeah the 'high road' with me, one of those days I guess.

why do I care? Because if you ignore a problem and just say "forget it they're just hookers" the problem will spread to other areas, gang violence, gang warfare, etc, this will lead to urban decay and urban slums. Downtown eastside isn't there yet, but it will if you just continue to ignore. I just have to look at the city I grew up in to know "ignoring and forgetting" doesn't work.

Yeah for mayor (its going to be interesting) we're going to see a three way race for the first time in a long time. Vision Vancouver is courting Carole Taylor but in order for her to convince Vision Vancouver people that she's qualified she's got to make amends for her record as finance minister and tell the voting public that she's not a new b.c. liberal (so-cred) but an old b.c. liberal before campbell took it over (liberal). I think she falls in the old category which means she never agreed with Campbell but she's going to have to run a Bob Rae for Liberal Party of Canada campaign saying I'm  not a B.C. Liberal etc. etc. If Cope isn't convinced they'll run their own candidate for mayor (they didn't last time they supported Vision) and if they do, it could be seen to the NPA voter that Taylor is NPA lite, therefore Sullivan would lose votes.  

[lazy Marik]

You know what they should do instead of give him a bunch of years in jail, is to round up all of the people who were directly related to the women who died (family members), lock Picton in a room (handcuffs / tied down / whatever), and then proceed to beat the crap out of him!
It would be a much more fulfilling revenge!
Then they could choose to spare him for a day or two, and then come back again to beat him up some more, etc.

Hmm... I've been watching too many movies...

Anyways, what does everyone think of my suggestion?
 

[Sportsdude]

too many movies.
lol

 

[P.C.]

I dunno.....sometimes I toy with the idea of vigilante justice.

[Russ]

MAke the sentence tough enough that it scares people away.

  Not smack them on the hands and send them to a prison with a tennis court and full educational offering.