How on earth does a trial get delayed 5.5 years?
Posted by
ty97
Nov 4 '13, 12:01
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Although originally scheduled for April 7, 2008, the trial of the men charged with Sean Taylor's murder was postponed to June 2009.[47] The trial was postponed by petition of the defense, saying that there were still hundreds of potential witnesses who needed to be interviewed before the trial could proceed. The trial was delayed for a third time on June 9, 2009 for unspecified reasons. A new trial date was set for January 18, 2010, and was postponed again with a trial date of March 14, 2011.[48][49] After another delay, the trial was set to begin on January 30, 2012.[50] On May 12, 2008, it was announced the suspects, if convicted, would not face the death penalty, but may be subjected to life imprisonment because the suspected gunman, Eric Rivera, was only 17 at the time of the shooting.[51] On May 15, 2008, Venjah Hunte, one of the five suspects in Taylor's murder, accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 29 years in prison.[52] On April 1, 2009, Hunte petitioned the court to withdraw his guilty plea.[53]
On January 20, 2012, a judge set a trial date of April 16 for Eric Rivera, Jr., the alleged gunman in the case.[54] However, Rivera Jr. fired his lawyer on March 16,[55] eventually causing delays. On July 12, the judge postponed the trial to November 5,[56] but that date was further moved back to April 5, 2013 due to conflicting schedule with the chief prosecutor.[57] On April 2, 2013, the trial was again postponed to August 12, 2013. In August, the trial was postponed to September 16, 2013.[58] This has since been rescheduled once again to October 15, 2013.
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