*

*
Yosemite under Orion's gaze

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Such a nice young man.


John Ditulio is accused of a stabbing a woman and killing a teenager in 2006 in a neo nazi hate crime. His first trial ended in a mistrial. The jury in Clearwater, Florida that heard his case today never got a chance to see the swastika tattooed on his neck, the judge agreeing with the defense attorney that it would be too prejudicial. The public is paying a cosmetologist $125.00 per day to give him the makeover so that he can pretend that he is a human being in front of the jury.
“There’s no doubt in my mind — without the makeup being used, there’s no way a jury could look at John and judge him fairly,” Mr. Brunvand, the defense attorney said.“It’s too frightening when you see him with the tattoos. It’s a scary picture.” 
Maybe it's a scary picture because he is a scary guy. I think the jury has a right to see him for the psycho he really is, nazi tattoos and all. This is a scumbag who sent a Christmas card to the dead boy's father, shortly after the murders that read, "I hope your Christmas is full of memories of your dead gay son. Merry fucking Christmas." His notebook contained the entry:  "I'm ready to die for what I believe in.  I now know what it means to die for my race."  Another entry followed, "I'm ready to shoot these cops until my hand stops working. ... I'd rather be killed than to live with those niggers forever."

Why does he have the right to be sanitized for a jury? He is who he is.

5 comments:

Sanoguy said...

No sympathy for the a__ h___ at this end!!!!

I normally don't support the death penalty. In this case, I have changed my position.

grumpy said...

i still say the a-hole is entitled to a defense.

Blue Heron said...

Who says that he isn't? But he should go in with his tats, why pretend he's something he's not?

Anonymous said...

If the defendant in this case is to be convicted, it should be on the basis of evidence, proven in court beyond a reasonable doubt, and not on the basis of his appearance, or his notoriety in the media; for all we know, he may have been set up, as he claims; the defense presents its arguments this week.

Blue Heron said...

Yeah, they held him down and tattooed a swastika on his neck. I consider his appearance germane.