White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Conviction of Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez for Murder One Raises Question of Why?

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. Commentary by S. Richard Blassberg, WPCNR Legal Affairs Correspondent. May 12, 2003: Now that the jury in the Dennis Alvarez-Hernandez capital murder trial has returned its verdict, what do "The People" have that they didn't already have before the trial?

WPCNR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
S. RICHARD BLASSBERG
Photo by WPCNR News

Given the fact that the Defendant had long ago offered to plead guilty to Murder One, could it be that the People, by virtue of having spent more than two years and incalcuable human and financial resources, have gained only the opportunity to spend millions of dollars more for the privilege of condemning him to death?

How was it that the Defendant, who numerous times was reported for domistic violence by Patricia Torres, and who was charged with attempting to run her over with her own car just two months before the killings, was neither in treatment, nor incarcerated on September 3, 2000, and in fact had an unexecuted warrant for his arrest?

Could it be that the District Attorney's own Domestic Violence Unit had possibly let this one "slip through the cracks?"

How was it that the jury reportedly took only four hours of deliberation to determine their verdict?

Given the fact that the judge had given them the option of finding Murder Two with Depraved Indifference, could it be that jurors gave little weight to the high level of intoxication acknowledged by the Prosecution's own expert witness?

Given the fact that the Defendant, a Latino, is the only case, out of nine cases eligible, for which the District Attorney's Office saw fit to seek the death penalty, why was there no coverage by the Latino media?

Could it be that the power of the District Attorney's Office has scared the Latino media off the story, as The New York Law Journal and The New York Times have not covered stories unflattering to the District Attorney's Office in the recent past, as in the Law Journal "kill" of a story on the Jay Hashmall affair, and the Times refusal to cover the David Meyers suicide and funeral?

Note: S. Richard Blassberg is the author of The Jeanine Machine the skeptical and highly crictical book on the District Attorney's Office. He has been covering the Alvarez--Hernandez trial for WPCNR.


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