Massachusetts man fears his horns, ’666′ forehead tattoo will make a fair trial impossible

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/24/massachusetts-man-fears-his-horns-666-forehead-tattoo-will-make-a-fair-trial-impossible/



Massachusetts man fears his horns, ’666′ forehead tattoo will make a fair trial impossible
By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, August 24, 2014 10:37 EDT

The lawyer for a Massachusetts man who has a “666″ tattoo and horns implanted on his forehead believes that his appearance will make it impossible for him to find an impartial jury or receive a fair trial, The Republican reports.

James G. Reardon, Jr. is worried that the appearance of his client, Caius Veiovis, will distract jurors from the facts of the case, and petitioned Hampden Superior Court Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder to allow him to show potential jurors a photograph of Veiovis before jury selection.

Veiovis is accused of assisting David Chalue and Adam Lee Hall in the kidnapping, torturing, murdering, and dismembering of David Glasser, Edward Frampton, and Robert Chadwell in August of 2011. Glasser had been set to testify against Hall, a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, when he, Frampton, and Chadwell went missing on August 28.

Their dismembered corpses were discovered 10 days later.

[Hoppy]

1. How the hell can he have a fair trial?

If I was on the jury, I would be laughing myself silly, looking at his sorry ass every day in the court room.

[mercuryblues]

2. Perhaps he should

stay home. He only has a right to face his accusers. He can choose to forgo that right.

[merrily]

5. Not face, but confront, witnesses. He also has a right to participate in his own defense.

Confronting witnesses is challenging them about what they are saying and doing on the stand.

If you watch some of the trials, defendants will often hear something a witness says, then grab a pad, write a note and pass the note to their lawyer. Because no matter how well the lawyer and defendant prep, the defendant is going to know stuff the lawyer doesn't. Staying home is a right, but you lose that. So, if you have to stay home to get a fair trial you are not getting a constitutionally fair trial at all.

[Demeter]

3. It's unlikely that any eye witness account will cause mistaken identity

what was he thinking? where did he get the money for such?

[elias7]

4. People might prejudge him on his appearance?

That's never happened before

[merrily]

6. Yes, people are continually judged on their appearance, even if the "judger" is

unaware that he or she is judging based on appearance. There is probably no way to change that, either, beyond giving an appropriate jury instruction and hoping like hell the jury can and will apply it.

Is this news to Reardon? Isn't his desire to be judged on his appearance exactly why he went through so much trouble and pain to look that way?

That said, I hope he gets a fair trial, despite how he looks.