Raskolnikov

Thanks to Jon DKLN for this link from the Washington Post about Andy Mickel, a young cop killer who passed this way.

In November 2002, Officer David Mobilio was shot outside Red Bluff, CA. Six days later, this post appeared on various indy-media sites:

"Hello Everyone, my name's Andy. I killed a Police Officer in Red Bluff, California in a motion to bring attention to, and halt, the police-state tactics that have come to be used throughout our country. Now I'm coming forward, to explain that this killing was also an action against corporate irresponsibility."

Now he's in a death penalty trial, representing himself with the same mixture of delusion and conceit:

In his opening statement to the jury, the Associated Press reported that Mickel said, "I want to tell you that I did ambush and kill David Mobilio." The police officer's widow was weeping in the courtroom. Mickel did not express remorse. He has pled not guilty. He promised to provide his side during the trial. Mickel is scheduled to begin his defense on Tuesday. "I'm going to have to tell you that stuff later," he told the jury. "I don't have a sound-bite defense."

Whatever he thought his defense might have been - maybe the necessity defense of "I had to shoot the father of a toddler three times, twice in the back and once in the head, in order to prevent a greater evil" or the general defense of "Just let me tell you my side of the story," it appears that the judge shut him down on Friday. Now he will present no defense at all.

Closing arguments are today. Those in my line of work will be interested in reading about the laissez-faire job Mickel's "advisory counsel" is doing. Remember, this is a cop-killer case, death penalty eligible.

On his way to becoming a murderous little creep, Mickel went to The Evergreen State College, here in the South Sound. My neighbors have been following his case in The Olympian since it started. It was good to see the WaPo article giving a little snapshot of Oly and TESC life as background, while not taking the easy "Evergreen made him a killer" route. That boy wasn't right long before he came out West. It's an intriguing article, capped by an interview with Mickel. The author ventures:

It is as if Mickel, in his thinking, had gone so far to the fringe left that he started to look a lot like the fringe right.

Fine as far as that goes, but I don't think these high-level threateners of lawful authority are on the "fringe" of the right. Man, these are sad days for fans of the rule of law, left, right, or center.

Update: Prosecutor closes with dramatic re-enactment of ambush

Update: Mickel guilty.
After deliberating the charges against defendant Andrew Mickel for 30 minutes a jury of six men and six woman returned Tuesday afternoon with a verdict of guilty and found a special allegation of murdering a police officer to be true.

Update 4/6/05:
Convicted cop-killer Andrew Mickel told a jury in the penalty phase of his trial today that he killed Red Bluff Police Officer David Mobilio out of “patriotism” and said the action was necessary and justified.

Bonus equal-opportunity (non-DeLay) scoundrel links: Seattle Independent Media Center posts and comments about Mickel here and here, and coincidentally, here's the latest from seattle.indymedia.org:

Kristian Williams, author of the book "Our Enemies in Blue" and a member of Rose City Cop Watch in Portland, will be speaking at Western Washington University Monday, April 11th...
“Well-concieved , well-researched, and well-written,
Our Enemies in Blue deserves a truly wide
and deep readership.” - Mumia Abu-Jamal

(Yes, the same Mumia whose taped voice was featured in that graduation happening / publicity stunt at Evergreen a few years back.)