A THOUSAND CROSSINGS X

Dear Diary...
Coming Home
mardi 16 février 2010

Sigh, the rest of the CT have gone to watch Valentine's Day at Shaw Lido, while I'm in a bus at the very start of a 5 hour journey home. ): I WANT TO WATCH V DAY AT THE CINEMA! Anyone wanna go with me? [:

I've got 5 hours to burn, so I'll be typing a lot of random thoughts in this blog post. [:

I just finished reading Conviction by Richard North Patterson. It was quite an interesting book, although very draggy. However, it was talking about a very realistic problem that is plaguing the judicial system, so I guess it was worth persevering to the very end of the book, to realise the novel wasn't at all a fairy tale. Interesting read, worth a try.

Spoiler Alert starts from now!

When the body of an eleven-year-old Thuy Sen is found in San Francisco Bay, the police swiftly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, helped along by an incompetent lawyer for the defence, is quick to find the brothers guilty - and to sentence them both to die for their crimes.

Twelve years later, Payton is days from his execution, and overworked pro bono lawyer, Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband, Chris and stepson, Carlo, a recent Yale law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial, but that he's innocent. Racing against the clock and against insurmountable legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris and Carlo desperately try to stop the execution of a dead man.

Thuy Sen was found 12 years ago to have choked on semen and similar samples of semen were found in the Price brothers' living room. Samples were also found in the trunk of a car belonging to their "business partner", Eddie Fleet. Eddie Fleet had claimed only to be the transporter, whose duty was only to transport the body to the bay, the blame was entirely pushed to the Price brothers. The Price brothers who had a money-minded Coke addict for a lawyer, quickly bought them a ticket to the death row due to numerous tactical errors during the trials. Flora Lewis had seen 2 black men pull 11 year old Thuy Sen into their home. She had identified them as Payton Price and Rennell Price, however, in reality, whom she had seen were Eddie Fleet and Rennell Price. Eddie was a pedophile who had a fetish for forced oral copulation.

12 years after the trials, Payton and Rennell were days away from execution. Payton made an eleventh hour confession, saying that the real culprit of the murder was Eddie Fleet and himself was an accessory. The Paget family battled against the egoistic judicial system as a well as time, to petition for a delay in Payton's execution, so that he would be able to testify in court to Rennell's innocence. However, the delay was denied and Payton executed. Flora Lewis had died of old age. There were no witnesses to the incident left apart from Eddie Fleet himself.

Despite the efforts of the Paget family to prove Rennell's innocence, Rennell was executed on July 22, as the courts refused a reversal of the verdict to execute Rennell simply because sparing Rennell would be to ignore and undermine the AEDPA as well as cause chaos to the entire judicial system.

In this novel, it shows that sometimes, being innocent isn't enough, which is very realistic. If the courts were to spare Rennell and grant him a retrial, the many other death row inmates will also inventively come up with "new evidence" to delay the execution, however if they did not grant Rennell a retrial, they would be executing an innocent man, which is equivalent to simple murder. However, murder was the choice the courts chose. The life of Rennell wasn't worth causing chaos to the system.

The problem of racism was also covered in the book. Cross-racial identification has been deemed as highly unreliable (this is a real truth). In the story, Flora Lewis identified Payton and Rennell, instead of Eddie and Payton. In fact, she did not even see the faces of the 2 black men clearly when the crime occurred, as she was in her home, 90 feet away from the doorstep of the Price family home. However at the line up, all she needed to do was to identify her neighbours from 10 feet and deem them as murderers.

Sad story. In the end, Rennell was executed, although he was really innocent.

That's why I don't wish to be a lawyer. I don't want to be a defendant for a criminal, because I feel that if a criminal has really committed a crime, he should be punished for him, and I would feel guilty for allowing him to scot free or escape with a lighter sentence. I wouldn't want to be a prosecutor either because I may cause an innocent to be punished, even executed.

Sigh.

I just finished my on-board meal. It's 4:24. Gah the movie started. ); sian I want to watch V Day! Someone go watch with me pls pls pls.

I donno why, but for the entire trip, it seems like EVERYWHERE is playing the songs in the Ares dance soundtrack. Like "Boom Boom Pow" and "Hotel Motel'. I think I heard everything except the "tempo has reahed critical limit". HAHA. When Hotel Motel started playing in my cousin's car, when the A-R-E-S part came, I muttered, "A-R-E-S". Hehe. [: And when the "Boom Boom Pow" part came on I can totally imagine the "try to copy my swagger" part. haha. I find that part of the lyrics and dance pretty funny, I don't know why. HAHA.

Sigh, still so far away from home. HELP. ): And there's school tomorrow lehhhhh. SCHOOL. Means I won't get my adequate rest.

This has got to be the most unlucky weekend ever. No pool, no cycling, no v.day, no V Day the movie, and then lesson proper the very next day. I'm only arriving home, like at my doorstep close to midnight. Sigh. ):

I HAVEN'T CYCLED IN A WEEK AND A HALF. ):

Do you think Taylor L will go watch V Day with me? (: I don't dare ask anyway :/

I'M HOME. I'M FINALLY HOME. IT'S 11:02 NOW!

Au Revoir

yongliang

he closed his diary at {15:48}