more reiser thoughts

i was mistaken about the death penalty, apparently that requires additional charges or something in CA. like a good lazy programmer, i'll worry about that when i need to and not before.

according to wired:

By the time he was done, Reiser had succeeded only in dispelling the cloud of ambiguity surrounding his actions in the case, replacing it with a storm of very specific explanations that each strained credulity. Jurors had to choose between Reiser's strained version of events and the plain conclusion that he was lying.

my point still stands: hans may have been an asshole and a liar, and a poor one at that, but it does not follow that he murdered his wife.

and then, of course, there's this:

Defense attorney William DuBois cross-examined the witnesses about Nina's extramarital affair with Reiser's former best friend, Sean Sturgeon. (The jury was not allowed to hear testimony that Sturgeon has confessed to killing eight people unrelated to the case, in retaliation for child abuse.).

reasonable doubt?

Hora speculated that Reiser might have choked his wife, based on little evidence except that Reiser was a black belt in judo, a martial art where choking is a specialty.

except, of course, the only "evidence" in the trial was a bunch of blood in various places, and a removed carseat from a hosed down car (suggesting blood). a black belt in judo should not produce a lot of blood when choking someone, right?

In January, Judge Goodman threatened to bar Reiser from his own trial. "I'm not sure whether you're doing this on purpose to screw up the process or it's just part of your nature," the judge said outside the presence of the jury. "I'm tired of you disrupting the courtroom."

look at this, there's more evidence for my own comments than evidence that a murder occurred in this case. in a case like this, where the guys life is on the line, perhaps "justice" could be a little more accomodating to his personality "flaws"? no? but those same "flaws" end up as evidence to put him away?

that is not justice.

"I have a compulsive tendency to say things that I know are true that people don't want to be true," Reiser said at one point.

a jury of hans' peers would find this eminently believable.

He bought those books about murder investigations, he said, because he wanted to know how police behaved. "I was under investigation by the police," he said. Reading up on their techniques was only logical, he testified.

this, too. i'm not claiming that only programmers should judge programmers, but i am saying that, before reading the wired article, based on my own guesses at the personality of a linux filesystem developer, i successfully predicted hans' behavior in the courtroom.

if i can predict it, why can't 12 of his "peers" comprehend it?

"You are rude," he said. "You are arrogant. There are not enough words in the English language to describe the way you are."

But the jurors found a word on Monday: guilty.

how about: railroad.