February 28, 2005

Idaho teen on trial for murdering her parents

I don't know if you've been following this trial, but a teenager is on trial in Idaho for murdering her parents. Sarah M. Johnson was 16 when her parents were killed in September 2003. Court TV has been providing full coverage here.

The trial has not been going well lately. In fact, it's turned pretty ugly.

On Wednesday, a jailhouse snitch claimed that Johnson admitted the murders through "a slip of the tongue." "One time, she said, 'When I killed...'." Then she stopped herself and was like, 'When the killers ...'." The defense lawyer tried to rattle the snitch by asking if she thought this trial was funny, only to get back a face-full of "you're a joke to me, Mr. Defense Lawyer." Advantage: snitch.

On Thursday, trial was halted for two hours when prosecutors spread out blood-covered bed sheets and court officials became concerned over "body pieces" falling to the floor. Fault: prosecution. On Friday, a blood-spatter expert put on a pink bathrobe to demonstrate his theory of how the killer stood while shooting the victims. Point: expert.

It's been fairly compelling to follow as a spectator. Please spare me from ever having to do another murder trial as a participant.

1 Comment:

moi said...

Yep, I've been following this trial a little bit and from what I saw it never was going that well for the defense. This "little slip" could be rather damaging. Most people would view that as a "Freudian slip" revealing the truth from behind her veil of lies and not just a stupid mistake. I've done it sometimes; said what the other person wanted me to say, not what I meant to say. But i'm terribly biased here.

Regardless of that slip, I think there's significant evidence against her. Troubled girl, she is.