Reasonable doubt?
Hazlenut said: "We can never know for sure what Ward was actually thinking or feeling and we will never know 100% how the woman was behaving at the time."
He's right, of course. But neither could the jury know, for sure. Wouldn't that uncertainty have constituted "reasonable doubt," preventing a conviction?
Should Ward be released? - yes, we think so.
Was he an "unintended consequence" of a perhaps poorly crafted law? - yes, we think so.
Did the case get out of hand, driven by personalities? - yes, we think so.
Can we really resolve the case on this forum, knowing less than what presumably the jury knew? - probably not.
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