GUILTY NC - Tim Hennis on trial in the '85 Eastburn murders, Fort Bragg

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Boyz_Mum said:
Welcome to Websleuths, Rachy.

This is one case that I am anxious to see solved and have justice served for the victims. I go back and forth with myself regarding Hennis, one day I think he's innocent, one day I think he's guilty.

If you get the book and read it, I'd love to hear what you think of it. I leaned toward Hennis being innocent, after watching the movie. I haven't read the book.

Here are a couple of links where the crime has been discussed here on Websleuths (in different areas of the forum):

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65680&highlight=Tim+Hennis

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41362&highlight=Tim+Hennis
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The movie was based upon the book, "Innocent Victims". The book was written by an author who felt that Hennis was innocent.
 
ive said it before but i dont like this.......he may very well be guilty, but he was acquitted in civilian court........and the army gets to retry him why exactly? why do our soldiers swear to 'protect and defend' the constitution if things as simple as double jeopardy dont apply to them?
 
samantha17 said:
Tim Hennis did have his last trial via military charges. I talked to some folks from Fayetteville NC at Dollywood and asked how that trial turned out ..... they said he was convicted of murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole ..... the sad thing is that he had many years of total freedom by being aquitted in the other trials.
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I have to disagree with your information here. Hennis was convicted and sentenced to death in the first trial. Retried and acquitted on the second trial in Wilmington. This upcoming trial is the third trial to be held under military jurisdiction.
 
A lot of misinformation by the prosecution is being said in court.
 
Lone you posted on another Tim thread that part of the reason for the not guilty verdict was the teenage neighbor boy. Could you elaborate. I am not convinced yet of Tim's guilt but I do not see another viable suspect either.
 
sundrop said:
A lot of misinformation by the prosecution is being said in court.
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Welcome sundrop!

What do you feel is "misinformation"? (I'm asking because I keep waivering back and forth as to whether or not I feel Hennis is innocent or guilty.)
 
The trial is finally underway. They have selected jurors and I think the evidence is being heard now. If Hennis is acquitted, then that's that - no more proceedings against him. If he is convicted the worst he can face is the death penalty again. But the military must have appeal proceedings.
 
bamabeauty said:
Lone you posted on another Tim thread that part of the reason for the not guilty verdict was the teenage neighbor boy. Could you elaborate. I am not convinced yet of Tim's guilt but I do not see another viable suspect either.
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Can you direct me to this post? I do not remember anything about a teenage neighbor. However, young babysitter was a groupie for Jeffrey McDonald and McDonald was trying anything and everything to get a new trial. Julie Czernick, the babysitter, was a faithful pen pal of McDonald and even received a phone call from Jeffrey McDonald on her birthday. Jeff McDonald cut all ties to Julie Czernick at the same time that Hennis was arrested. I have always wondered just how far Julie Czernick was willing to go to get Jeffrey McDonald a retrial.

Also, there is the young man called "The Walker", John Raupach. He was located and brought into the courtroom on the second trial. He was a dead ringer for Hennis. He was also known to walk the Eastburn's neighborhood in the early hours before daylight. Also, wore a Members Only jacket. He had a lot of impact on the jury on the second trial. Definitely cast doubt on if the eye witness (Patrick Cone) saw Hennis or did he see John Raupach? Hennis and Raupach could easily be mistaken for each other.
 
not to be cynical, but they'll probably find another way around an acquittal.
 
Boyz_Mum said:
Welcome sundrop!

What do you feel is "misinformation"? (I'm asking because I keep waivering back and forth as to whether or not I feel Hennis is innocent or guilty.)
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I'm also interested in what the "misinformation" is, please let me know if Sundrop responds.
 
The DNA results in the Hennis case are not what the government has made them out to be. Overall the DNA results are inconclusive.
 
dragnet said:
The DNA results in the Hennis case are not what the government has made them out to be. Overall the DNA results are inconclusive.
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I have read cases where DNA evidence has turned out to be wrong (can't recall names offhand), and other cases where DNA evidence has set people free. Either way you do need to be careful with DNA samples that are old and/or not been preserved properly as the semen sample was.


Questions have been raised as to how objective the State was in assembling its case. One book has been published on the case which is definitely pro-Hennis and accused the State of being single-minded in prosecuting Hennis while ignoring or even suppressing evidence to the contrary, and not pursuing leads such as the strange phone calls to Mrs Eastburn. Showing that horror-movie slide show to the first jury was definitely going too far; they must rue the day they did it because it gave the Defence the perfect ammunition to get the first verdict overturned. No other research has been published for comparison, though this may change in the wake of the third trial.

And aside from the DNA evidence, what evidence is new and wasn't discredited at the second trial?
 
dragnet said:
The DNA results in the Hennis case are not what the government has made them out to be. Overall the DNA results are inconclusive.
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Where did you get this information? From the information I've read, the DNA is definitely Hennis's.
 
Originally Posted by dragnet View Post
The DNA results in the Hennis case are not what the government has made them out to be. Overall the DNA results are inconclusive.

Where did you get this information? From the information I've read, the DNA is definitely Hennis's.

Yes, perhaps you do need to clarify what you mean by "overall the DNA results are inconclusive".
 
kbl8201 said:
not to be cynical, but they'll probably find another way around an acquittal.
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Yes, they probably would try at least, given their belief that he is guilty. But Hennis has to be acquitted first. It could go either way, or even end in a hung jury. Hmm, what might happen if the jury can't decide?
 
Sameera said:
Yes, they probably would try at least, given their belief that he is guilty. But Hennis has to be acquitted first. It could go either way, or even end in a hung jury. Hmm, what might happen if the jury can't decide?
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I have a feeling that if there is a hung jury that the charges will be dropped. I just can not see trying this case again, but I didn't think that this third trial would ever happen either.
 
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