One of the positive things to come out of my trip down to London yesterday, to be at the premiere of The Fear Factory, was to meet and talk with Barry and Margaret Mizen, the parents of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen, who was killed by Jake Fahri during a fight. Fahri was convicted of murder. However, I am not convinced that the jury got it right in this case and on preliminary examination I think that the verdict should have been manslaughter.
Take this Sky News report, for example...
"Jimmy Mizen was stabbed in the neck and bled to death in 2008".
It is not accurate to claim that Jake Fahri stabbed Jimmy Mizen in the neck. It gives the impression of knife crime. Rather, Fahri threw a glass oven dish which shattered when it caught Mizen on the jaw and a shard of glass severed the juglar vein in his neck. I am reminded of those incidents where a victim was knocked unconscious and dies as a result of his head hitting the pavement.
5 comments:
What did they think of your point of view yesterday?
James: We did not discuss that. I have thought about it since our meeting. But, I did ring Barry today and I don't think he was too keen to discuss the issue. But he did say the law is a grey area on this issue.
i have taken a keen interest in this story as i live in the local area. I was of the same mind set as you when i first heard the facts of the case and the jury's decision. delving a little deeper into the law book i can see why in fact the jury got it correct. I believe it wasn't murder in the pre meditated sense but it was murder as murder is also defined as trying to cause someone serious injury which inadvertently leads to their death. Throwing a dish at someones head surely means you are trying to do them as much harm as possible? from the reports that i read jake fahri had 3 opportunities to leave the shop but didn't - i can imagine jurors seeing jake in a very bad light because of this. what do you think?
I am aware of the serious injury rule. Nevertheless, it increases the scope for conviction. In my view, this should have been a case of manslaughter.
"Stabbed in the neck" makes for better news sensationalism than "accidentaly cut"
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