[conspire] (forw) Reiser trial: DNA tests partially flubbed, defence motion for mistrial

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Dire Red (deirdre at deirdre.net):

> There are certainly cases where people have been convicted of murder  
> without a body. In fact, I just watched a rerun of Forensic Files  
> where that was the case, however there was significant blood evidence  
> in the floorboards of the house even a decade later. In every case  
> I've heard of (admittedly, only about a dozen) where there was a  
> conviction without a body, there was significant evidence that the  
> person was dead.
[...]
> In the Reiser case, there's no evidence of the kind of violence (that  
> I've heard of anyway) that would kill someone, only circumstantial  
> evidence of death.

Precisely the point I've made several times.  Prosecution's contention 
that Hans had transported Nina's corpse some significant distance in his
Honda CRX (to dispose of it), and yet no forensic evidence existed other
than a faint blood stain of indeterminate age on a stuffsack, struck me
as non-credible.  We're supposed to believe that washing the floorboard
with water removed all trace of blood?  I really don't think so.

> I agree with Christian's response to my post, but there's also  
> another kind of horrible: letting the killer go free because the case  
> was brought too early to ensure a conviction.

This has been my interpretation all along:  The Oakland DA was stampeded
into "doing something about Nina" by the professionally sponsored ad
campaign paid for by Clear Channel, CBS Outdoor, and Web-design firm 
Idiom Technology, at the time of Nina's disappearance:  They had _20_
Nina Reiser billboards along major East Bay roadways, plus a 
profesionally-done Web site -- and consequently the story was all over
the news.  It's very common for DAs to respond to that sort of public
pressure, by filing charges against the likeliest-looking suspect and
just hoping that enough evidence emerges post-indictment to make the
case.  (In their experience, it usually does.)