Page 16 - Mitigating Factor News Today

He hit them in the back. >> the difference was in american sniper, he was clearly mentally ill to some degree. >> and she was clearly not the person who did the killing. >> well -- >> theres a mitigating factor in both of these. >> this is a cold-blooded planned killing for money. and the laws always taken a more jaded view of that kind of a killing than something done in the heat of motion or passion. >> as it relates to mental illness, the death penalty cant be applied and thats a big point. >...

Thats telling as to the feelings of the people in the community, those who there are many other states that do have the death penalty, 32 but the reality is is that its a federal trial and as a result of that, youre governed by federal rules. now having said that i think that you can make the argument that look maybe people in massachusetts are predisposed not to give the death penalty but those people pre-disposed not to will not be serving on that jury, because if youre not -- its not about yo...

Is doing is attacking all of this, and at the end of the day, he cant t away attention for the two taped phone calls made by this woman setting this whole thing up. heather: ashley, i wonder if theyre trying to use this as sort of a mitigating factor in the case. what do you think of that? >> oh, definitely. theyre trying to divert any attention they can from these audio recordings. theres nothing worse than when your client commits a crime on tape. and theyve got an audio recording of her hirin...

Of doing the crime. >> correct. he was convicted, found guilty. the jury convict requested him in one hour. look, my mother used to beat me with a wooden spoon. does that mean im going to get away murder? in order to show ineffective assistance of counsel, you have to show that the trial outcome may have been different, but unfortunately for this guy in this case, it would have been harmless error. the evidence was overwhelming. and again, under texas law a mitigating factor has to have some nex...

Faces the insurance companies to clued with the administration to make -- collude with the administration to make the affordable care act look affordable and we know from experience when you sell plans to sick people and healthy people at the same price only the sicker people signed up and the premium goes way up. this incentivizes the insurers to price the plans lower that whan it needed to cover the cost of care of people who sign up and then let the taxpayers bail them out. >> so these number...

Odin lloyd. and an important point is, carlos ortiz came forward and said that he saw aaron hernandez with a larger gun after the murder tock place and odin lloyd was killed with a globing 45 which is a larger gun. and so that is another piece of evidence that i think will help the prosecution and obviate the need for deals. >> there are reports that odin, that aaron hernandez was involved with drugs. may have been a drug addict. is that a mitigating factor and does the judge have symptthough if...

There are three ways to withdraw. if he moves out of state, dies or gets convicted of a felony. >> thanks very much. hearing is under way to decide how much time an army private will serve for the biggest leak in u.s. history. the sentencing phase follows the judges verdict only 24 hours ago. she acquitted him of the most serious charge of aiding the enemy but was found guilty on 20 other charges. manning avoided a life sentence but could still face many, many years in prison, maybe even decad...

Situation for the travis alexander family. what if they dont want to go through more testimony, go through this again? whats the likelihood that a deal that could be brokered that could spare her the death sentence and simply get life in prison? >> wolf, if the family doesnt want to go through this anymore, that will have a significant impact on the prosecutions decision. i dont see the prosecutors picking a new jury, and essentially retrying the case. i know other people are saying most of this...

Turn into a violent anything, but i do say from the people who i have interviewed, you know, on death row or in prisons around the country, most of them will have some type of violence, psychological, physical violence, sexual violence in their background. however, im kind of tough on this because i still dont believe it should be a mitigating factor. they still have the ability to make choices and its free will and theyre making these choices and its the wrong choices. >> lets just turn to the ...

Turn into a violent anything, but i do say from the people who i have interviewed, you know, on death row or in prisons around the country, most of them will have some type of violence, psychological, physical violence, sexual violence in their background. however, im kind of tough on this because i still dont believe it should be a mitigating factor. they still have the ability to make choices and its free will and theyre making these choices and its the wrong choices. >> lets just turn to the ...