Shitty Justice

We can all sleep better tonight knowing that one of our great modern crimes has been solved!  Look out JonBenet's killer - you're next!

Ingmar Guandique, who was already imprisoned for attacking two female joggers, was found guilty of murdering Washington intern Chandra Levy some nine years ago. For those who don't recall, Levy's disappearance crushed congressman Gary Condit's career as their romantic link became public fodder during the year-long search to find her remains.

The fascinating part to the conviction is the lack of direct evidence from prosecutors, who got their man by impressing the notion that Levy's death fit a pattern of other crimes committed by Guandique in the park.  Yep, it seems like he could have done it, so that's good enough these days.  Suck it, habeas corpus!

Let me try to make it clearer if it hasn't sunk in: even though they had no eyewitnesses and no DNA evidence linking Guandique to Levy, and Guandique never confessed to police, they convinced a dozen dumb motherfuckers this guy did it.  How?  The testimony of Armando Morales, former cellmate of Guandique, who allegedly confided in him that he killed Levy. That's incredible when you think about how Condit's DNA was on underwear at Levy's apartment, and there's not a speck of Guandique's DNA to be found...guess those CSI shows better change their format and get with the times!

Is it worth pointing out that DNA from an unknown male found on Levy's black running tights matched neither Guandique nor Condit?  Nah...that can easily be explained away by prosecutors' claim that the DNA was the result of contamination during the testing process.  Funny how that wasn't "contamination" nine years ago...

Morales said Guandique was worried about being labeled a rapist by fellow inmates if word got out that he was a suspect in the Levy case. According to Morales, Guandique admitted killing Levy as part of an attempted robbery, but said he never raped her. Morales has not received any benefit for his testimony...yet (don't be surprised if prosecutors seek to reduce his jail time in the future).   Also presented was testimony from two women who were attacked by Guandique in May and July of 2001 in Rock Creek Park, where Levy disappeared. In both cases, Guandique attacked the women from behind while they jogged on isolated trails but ran off after each woman fought him off. Hmmm...I guess he did it.

There's no doubt that Guandique is a criminal scumbag and deserves prison, but I'm pretty sure that guilt by association isn't actual prosecutable, legal guilt.  Well, at least until now.