Woman's quest for exoneration enters second day of trial

[snoop1130]

Woman's quest for exoneration enters second day of trial

By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter

 

Jomsap Saenmuangkhot thanks reporters Wednesday night for covering her retrial at Nakhon Phanom Provincial Court.

 

NAKHON PHANOM — A court convened Thursday for day two of a retrial requested by a woman who served a year and a half in prison for a crime she said she didn’t commit.

 

Jomsap Saenmuangkhot returned to the Nakhon Phanom provincial court for a hearing to examine the witnesses for the defense. The 45-year-old woman hopes to have her vehicular manslaughter conviction stricken from her record and her teaching job restored – a quest that has captured widespread attention and reignited debates about the justice system.

 

Full Story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2017/02/09/womans-quest-exoneration-enters-second-day-trial/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2017-2-9

[BigBadGeordie]

I do not care if this woman is innocent or not, she has done so much damage to the reputation of the RTP...........said " nobody, except perhaps the RTP.

[rkidlad]

Good luck to this woman. I believe her to be innocent, and I hope the truth comes out.

 

As for the police, I hope you get that huge kick up the a*** and loss of face that you so thoroughly deserve. This isn't a Thai bashing it's a bad guys bashing. 

[webfact]

Dusadee: Sub Wapee will not testify as his testimony may cause confusion

 

 

NAKHON PANOM: -- Justice deputy permanent secretary Dusadee Arayawuth is satisfied with the testifying of its witnesses in the pre-retrial hearing of the hit-and-run case held at the Nakhon Phanom provincial court on Wednesday and today (Thursday).

 

Pol Col Dusadee, however, said that the ministry’s legal team would not present Sub Wapee, the man who claimed to be the owner of the pick-up truck engaged in the fatal accident, for testifying as this cause confusion and complicate the case.

 

He explained that there was no precedent that the claim by one person that he committed an offence and that he had paid compensation to a victim of his offence would change a court’s verdict.

 

Dusadee said that the ministry would focus on scientific and forensic evidences to convince the court to grant a retrial for Mrs Jomsap Sanmuangkote who claimed she was wrongfully charged, prosecuted and convicted of the fatal accident which she did not commit because she was not in the pickup truck that was involved in the accident.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/dusadee-sub-wapee-will-not-testify-testimony-may-cause-confusion/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-02-10

[mtls2005]

Thai "justice" is "unique".

 

Charged/tried/convicted/serve jail time/get a Royal pardon, rinse/repeat (yes, I understand that she initiated the wrongful conviction case in an attempt to clear her name).

 

Contribute to the death of nine people, or two or one, while operating a vehicle unlawfully or under the influence, proceed directly to a few hours of community service, the temple or Singapore.

[soalbundy]

The story doesn't make clear why she was convicted in the first place.

[Artisi]

12 hours ago, rkidlad said:

Good luck to this woman. I believe her to be innocent, and I hope the truth comes out.

 

As for the police, I hope you get that huge kick up the a*** and loss of face that you so thoroughly deserve. This isn't a Thai bashing it's a bad guys bashing. 

Maybe the BIG noodle should apply his motto of "good guys in bad guys out",, now that would be a change but unfortunately it will never happen. You could nearly believe that the BIB have too much dirt on this particular guy for too many waves to be made. 

[Artisi]

58 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Thai "justice" is "unique".

 

Charged/tried/convicted/serve jail time/get a Royal pardon, rinse/repeat (yes, I understand that she initiated the wrongful conviction case in an attempt to clear her name).

 

Contribute to the death of nine people, or two or one, while operating a vehicle unlawfully or under the influence, proceed directly to a few hours of community service, the temple or Singapore.

That's called "well connected"  

[Artisi]

9 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

The story doesn't make clear why she was convicted in the first place.

Seems the BIB had the same problem awhile back when she was arrested, trialed, convicted and gaoled.

[rkidlad]

I also read elsewhere that a new witness is being presented to the court. When I say 'new', I mean the police already interviewed her not long after the accident occurred, but didn't even bother to ascertain whether the person driving the car that hit the cyclist was male or female. They were just happy to hear that it was a 'human being'. I guess they'd been busy that week watching funny Youtube videos of dogs driving cars. 

 

This is clearly a set-up, but why? I'm thinking the only reason is pure incompetence and laziness. When things go closer to the truth, the police were already at that point where they couldn't be bothered to go through the investigation again and didn't wanna lose face. "I'm a high-so police officer and I'm never wrong". Shameful, reckless, feckless and abhorrent behaviour, 

[Thaidream]

What Thailand needs is an "Innocence Project'- similar to the US where cases are reviewed for wrongful convictions and then properly adjudicated, vindicated and compensated. There are several hundreds of innocent people in jail in America. I have a feeling Thailand would have similar numbers.

[Briggsy]

1 minute ago, Thaidream said:

What Thailand needs is an "Innocence Project'- similar to the US where cases are reviewed for wrongful convictions and then properly adjudicated, vindicated and compensated. There are several hundreds of innocent people in jail in America. I have a feeling Thailand would have similar numbers.

I agree. But before you can have an "innocence project" you need a functioning justice system.

 

The 3 major weaknesses of the Thai system that would prevent such a project are

 

i) a lack of freedom from interference for defence lawyers. There have been a number of defence lawyers assassinated after taking cases from clients challenging people in power such as the police. Whilst assassination is the exception, pressure applied through threats to the lawyer's livelihood, career, etc. must be common in cases taking on the establishment.

 

ii) the judiciary and the application of sakdina when judging cases. More weight is given to testimony from witnesses with higher status resulting in an institutional bias in which the judiciary tend to side with the police or other public sector figures even if their testimony is very weak.

 

iii) external pressure through every channel available being applied to victims of injustice to ensure they stay quiet. There are numerous instances of witnesses revoking their statement but almost no instances of the police arresting powerful defendants for "perverting the course of justice" or the Thai equivalent.

[smotherb]

3 hours ago, soalbundy said:

The story doesn't make clear why she was convicted in the first place.

Yes, definitely, especially when her car showed no signs of accident, according to Toyota engineers.  Or was this evidence just presented, 12 years after the fact?

 

I went through several articles on her trial, did not see on what evidence was she convicted?

[Briggsy]

28 minutes ago, smotherb said:

Yes, definitely, especially when her car showed no signs of accident, according to Toyota engineers.  Or was this evidence just presented, 12 years after the fact?

 

I went through several articles on her trial, did not see on what evidence was she convicted?

Apparently a police witness claimed to have seen the licence plate. This was the evidence on which she was convicted.

[smotherb]

22 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Apparently a police witness claimed to have seen the licence plate. This was the evidence on which she was convicted.

Thanks Briggsy. And, the Toyota testimony about no damage to her vehicle was not introduced at the original trial?

[thai3]

5 hours ago, soalbundy said:

The story doesn't make clear why she was convicted in the first place.

Cos this is Thailand, in any country with a legal system based on real evidence she would never have been in court in the first place. Now this case is farcical and the Police are making bigger fools of themselves due to an instability to admit their incompetence . Not only witnesses who say it was a man behind the wheel, but even the man himself, and proven the car was never in an accident, the evidence is overwhelming in her favor, but the song and dance drags on.

[Briggsy]

19 minutes ago, smotherb said:

Thanks Briggsy. And, the Toyota testimony about no damage to her vehicle was not introduced at the original trial?

I don't know.

 

Judges here (particularly in the court of first instance) place great weight on police testimony.

[Artisi]

10 hours ago, rkidlad said:

I also read elsewhere that a new witness is being presented to the court. When I say 'new', I mean the police already interviewed her not long after the accident occurred, but didn't even bother to ascertain whether the person driving the car that hit the cyclist was male or female. They were just happy to hear that it was a 'human being'. I guess they'd been busy that week watching funny Youtube videos of dogs driving cars. 

 

This is clearly a set-up, but why? I'm thinking the only reason is pure incompetence and laziness. When things go closer to the truth, the police were already at that point where they couldn't be bothered to go through the investigation again and didn't wanna lose face. "I'm a high-so police officer and I'm never wrong". Shameful, reckless, feckless and abhorrent behaviour, 

Normal