The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that witness testimony is over in the trial. It now goes to closing arguments, and to the jury. I will keep my fingers crossed that justice is served.
“I tried to kick him [DiDonato] away first,” Ung, 29, told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury this morning, describing the incident at Fourth and Market Streets in Old City.
“He grabbed my right leg and I started to fall backward and my shoe came off. I just remember seeing sparks and hearing pops.”
Defense attorney Jack McMahon, who has argued that Ung fired in self-defense, drove the point home: “Did you shoot?”
“Yes, I pulled the trigger,” Ung replied though he added he did not know how many times he fired the .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol he had a permit to carry.
That’s not unusual. The same thing happens to police officers. You shoot until the threat ceases, and unfortunately, DiDonato fell into Ung, which a reasonable person couldn’t distinguish easily between going down and continuing to attack. The ADA seems to be hinging her case on Ung keeping up the “expletive-punctuated banter” with DiDonato. This is presumably to convince the jury Ung was a willing participant in the affray, but I don’t think words are an invitation to a beating.
It is strange: if he is convicted, ‘everyone’ will say that the video shows him committing a crime, and he’ll be a case study in how video footage can damn a person.
If the jury finds him not guilty, ‘everyone’ will say that the outcome was obvious, and that he was lucky that the video footage was available to help exonerate him.
“Potential beating” since there was no beating.
It would have been better all the way around if this had ended up a “potential shooting” instead of a shooting.
Does the jury verdict need to be unanimous on this? Can it be a simple majority?
All that needed to happen for it to be a potential shooting was for DiDonato to retreat.
Here’s another news story:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110214_Temple_Law_student_tells_jury_why_he_shot_another_man.html?cmpid=41144277
In the comments, someone says that Ung is 6’2″? If this is true, the jury can see that this isn’t the case of a “smaller man” against a much bigger man.
It doesn’t matter the size. Most states recognized more than one attacker as a disparity of force.
No way Ung is over six feet based on the photos. His attacker on the other hand is very well built.
Ung was clearly retreating in the video.
I’m interested in what their respective BAC was.