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Hermes

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Robert Blake
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someone brought up Robert Blake in the Peterson post, so I thought I would throw this out there too.  now - I'm really confused on this.  It reminds me of the OJ case - there's physical evidence and motive and they get off scot free. Then you get the Peterson case where there is motive and no physical evidence and he gets sentenced to death... I understand I was not there for the trial and haven't personally weighed all the evidence, but from what I do know, it just all seems odd...






Robert Blake Aquitted of Murder After Seamy Trial









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Wed March 16, 2005 8:57 PM GMT-05:00

By Jill Serjeant and Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A jury found actor Robert Blake not guilty on Wednesday of shooting dead his estranged wife after trying to solicit others to kill her, capping a celebrity trial that exposed Hollywood's seamy underbelly.

The white-haired Blake, 71, the former star of the 1970s TV detective series "Baretta," trembled with emotion, buried his head in his hands and appeared to sob as the verdict was read, ending a three-month trial.

Afterward, jurors said they were not convinced by the circumstantial case brought by prosecutors against Blake in the May 2001 murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, who was portrayed during the trial as a star-struck grifter who ran a mail-order sex business.

In addition to finding Blake not guilty of first-degree murder, the Los Angeles County Superior Court jury acquitted him of asking a retired stuntman to kill his wife.

The jury deadlocked 11-to-1 in favor of acquitting him on a second count of solicitation of murder involving yet another former stuntman who was a friend of Blake. The judge dismissed that charge.

Blake was charged with killing Bakley, his wife of six months, in his car outside a Los Angeles-area restaurant where the couple had dined minutes earlier.

He faced life in prison without parole if convicted.

Prosecutors said Blake despised Bakley and shot her to gain custody of the couple's young daughter, Rosie, after giving up trying to get others to kill his spouse.

Blake, who said his wife was gunned down by an unknown assailant, cut off the electronic monitoring anklet he wore for months while on bail and waved it triumphantly to reporters outside the court.

He said he had spent $10 million on his defense over the past four years. "I'm broke. I need a job," he joked.

The prosecution's circumstantial case hinged largely on the testimony of two the retired stuntmen who admitted under oath they had been hooked for years on drugs.

One of them, Gary "Whiz Kid" McLarty, acknowledged he suffered from paranoia culminating in a nervous breakdown in which he believed police were tunneling under his home.

The other, Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton, testified that Blake had proposed various scenarios to "pop" or "whack" his wife, including pushing her off the Grand Canyon. Two former roommates testified that Hambleton was a former methamphetamine user who suffered from hallucinations that "tree people" were stalking him.

The jury foreman told reporters after the verdict that jurors had found the evidence against Blake "flimsy" and "based on unreliable people."

Prosecutors said Blake was furious at Bakley when she became pregnant in 1999 and pressured her to have an abortion. He married her in November 2000 to get her to drop a child abduction charge against him.

The actor had harsh words for those who tried to tried to discredit him in the media during the case.

"You've interviewed my friends, you've interviewed producers who have worked for me, you've interviewed distant relatives and close immediate relatives," he told reporters. "Well guess what. They're all liars."



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Coach

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well one small factor that I think led to Blake's aquittal, Bonnie Lee Bakley was a less than admirable victim.  Even without evidence of an another enemy who wished her harm, the jury probably found the phantom of a suspect committing the murder really easy to imagine. 


Laci Peterson was loved everyone who knew her and had no other imaginable enemies, so in ones mind, it just had to be Scott.



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Andrea Julia


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Wow, I don't know what to think on this one.  I guess there is not really compelling evidence in the court sense of the word, but I just read this on AOL News (yeah, I know):


Blake did not testify at trial. But in various interviews before the trial -- including one with Walters in 2003 -- he denied any role in the killing. He said he left Bakley in the car that night and returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had left at their table. When he came back to the car, he discovered his wife had been shot. Jurors saw Blake's interview with Walters during the trial.


Okay.  He LEFT HER IN THE CAR to get a GUN that he LEFT AT THEIR TABLE?  WTF?  Why did he have a gun and why would he have have left it at a restaurant table?  Why would he take it out of wherever it is that people keep guns that they carry around with them?  And then his wife is shot with a GUN while he is retrieving his GUN from the restaurant?  This is one hell of a coincidence. 



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quote:
Originally posted by: Andrea Julia
"He said he left Bakley in the car that night and returned to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had left at their table. When he came back to the car, he discovered his wife had been shot. Jurors saw Blake's interview with Walters during the trial. Okay.  He LEFT HER IN THE CAR to get a GUN that he LEFT AT THEIR TABLE?  WTF?  Why did he have a gun and why would he have have left it at a restaurant table?  Why would he take it out of wherever it is that people keep guns that they carry around with them?  And then his wife is shot with a GUN while he is retrieving his GUN from the restaurant?  This is one hell of a coincidence.  "

uh, yeah? such a coincidence... that and the people that testified he tried to hire them to kill her... so - that's where my confusion is - with all that "evidence" how did Blake go free and Peterson is sentenced to death?  ...from what I am seeing of his appearances on TV right now - it appears that he has a screw loose - maybe he always did or maybe it's due to this...


 



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Drew


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quote:
Originally posted by: lorelei
"well one small factor that I think led to Blake's aquittal, Bonnie Lee Bakley was a less than admirable victim.  Even without evidence of an another enemy who wished her harm, the jury probably found the phantom of a suspect committing the murder really easy to imagine.  Laci Peterson was loved everyone who knew her and had no other imaginable enemies, so in ones mind, it just had to be Scott."
I've thought about this comment since I read it and it makes me sick, because I think it's so true. 

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lugojean


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I am guessing that Blake probably had better attorneys.  I read that in the Peterson trial the defense attorney claimed he would shed light on who the real killer was by the end of the trial.  He was never able to do this, in fact he never even brought it up again the the trial.  I think mistakes like this will cast a seed of doubt in the jury's mind.



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Mia


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I've read a bit about this and apprently the guys who testified about Blake trying to hire them were very, very shady characters and it was easy for the defense to rip their cred to shreds.


Also, and I agree this shoulsn't be the case, but juries are susceptible to their emotions and prejudices as well, even if they are told not to be. Laci Peterson was young, pregnant, pretty, sympathetic. BL Bakley was a shady grifter. Also, S Peterson was a robot in court, never showed emotion, and Blake was very vocal about his love for his daughter, I think he even wept in public a few times and made it very clear she was his only priority. I can see how these things would effect a jury, especially a jury with a few persuasive dumbasses on it.


I think Blake did it and I think Peterson did it, but I am not 100% sure there was enough evidence to convict either of them



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