Monday, March 16, 2009

Will Schuyler Marvin recuse his office from prosecution of Pilkinton?

The Inquisitor ran an article last week about the murder case of Charles R. Pilkinton and the fact that Pilkinton's son-in-law and a couple of businesses in which he is an officer had contributed to Schuyler Marvin's 'war chest'.
This is true, although there is no evidence that it has affected Marvin's ability to prosecute the case; he has charged Pilkinton with 2nd Degree Murder, which carries a life penalty.
Courthouse gossip has it that if Marvin believes that there is a perception of impropriety, he will turn the case over to the State Attorney General.
What really stood out about the Inquisitor article was the fact that Appeals Judge Henry Brown had testified at the bond hearing on behalf of Pilkinton, who is an old friend and fraternity brother. While this may not be improper, it is highly unusual and seems irregular.
In addition, it was shocking to find out that Pilkinton, a great friend of Judge Brown, had served on the James Monds jury back in the 80's when Brown was DA and was prosecuting the murder case. It is suprising that John Milkovich did not catch this at the time and challenge it.
Monds, a Barksdale airman, was released after serving 8 years in prison, thanks to Milkovich's efforts.
Personally, I have confidence that the DA will do the right thing, either in fully prosecuting the case or in recusing himself.
We'll support him in whichever option he follows.

11 comments:

  1. I am curious as to why Marvin would not be going after FIRST DEGREE Murder Vs Second Degree? First Degree doesnt carry the death sentence. Would this be the potential conflict of interest because of the campaign contributions?

    just wondering if anyone else has been hearing rumors about alleged illegal dog fighting in Minden, with a number of public officials involvement? maybe just rumor?

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  2. I don't know if it qualifies for first degree. It is my understanding that in order to charge first degree, the murder must have happened during the commission of another felony, unless the victim is a policeman or fireman.
    I could be wrong, maybe one of our lawyer readers could enlighten us.

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  3. Interesting that the Covington family was the biggest contributor to the Mike Craig campaign.($7,500)

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  4. First Degree Murder is the deliberate, planned act of Murder. One must have thought about it, (even for a short time) planned the murder and executed it. FDM are often proven not only because of planning of the murder itself, but also other factors like having a place to hide or get rid of the body, having an escape planned, ETC.

    A First Degree Felony murder is a murder that takes place while committing a felony, even if the murder is accidental. This happens most often in things like Arson, Kidnapping, Rape, ETC.

    Second Degree Murder appears to be any other type of murder (Other then Capital Murder) Generally speaking, an example of this would be a murder that happened very quickly without fore-thought. (IE; a verbal fight that escalates to a fist fight that escalates to murder) It�s very similar to Manslaughter, and some States do not differentiate between SDM and Manslaughter.

    It would seem to me as though coming home to find your wife with another man and killing him in rage would not be planned out.

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  5. ive heard that marvin had court of appeal aspirations like his father. If you ask around with people that know they will tell you that Brown and Marvin are not too "friendly" with each other. a showdown in the works perhaps?

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  6. isn't ramming your car into someone else's an aggravated battery? I thought he ran his car into the victim's car. that would be the commission of a felony

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  7. I don't know if he rammed the car or not, or if that qualifies as a felony. I will try to get a professional opinion and publish it.

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  8. It is obvious that Marvin does not have his dad Corky's integrety or morals and his ethics are questionable at best. Most of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that Bossier & Webster will always be run by the crooked good ole boys & not much we can do. Didn't attorney Gold win a case very similiar to this in Bossier in 1990, Chandler kiiled his wife's lover and the DA gave Gold open filed to tear the wife up on the stand and let the killer go free. Anyone remember Fallon, convicted of murder in Bossier, never served a day of real prison time, ran the benton jail, hell even had right to drive a police car. I wish some one would finally review Marvin's cases he lets his friends walk on Dwi, even ones who blew twice the legal limit, where is MADD when this occurs, where is all that Money marvin stashed away when he opened separqate bank accounts for pre trial diversion. I thought we finally sent a mesage when them there two Judges was conviceted."JUSTICE AINT FOR SALE" The hell it aint, it is if Marvin and his short man sydrome is in your back pocket. I hope its true that the feds are closely monitoring him, cause untill the feds step in justice is for sale in bossier

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  9. Don't think for a minute that Mike Craig isn't getting looked at by the FBI as well. He is as crooked as a barrel of snakes. Just hang in there and we'll have a few special elections before you know it.

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  10. You have some knowledge that you need to share with the rest of us about a federal investigation?

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  11. I just pray all this nonsense will stop.

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