RC to Plead Guilty

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belimom

belimom

Speak the truth even if your voice shakes~M.Kuhn
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belimom said:
I didn't see a thread on this:
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Thanks. It's in the news only thread up top, but it's a good idea to have comments here. My first thought, of course, is to wonder how much Clark will explain about the motive (if it's greater than rapidly escalating anger) and the crime.
 
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2011/03/16/news/doc4d7fc59ddf5e1242902968.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Raymond Clark's court appearance and presumably his confession will occur tomorrow morning.

The New Haven Register, which has been a reliable source on this case, opens by saying that this plea deal occurred after "many months" of negotiation. This helps answer the complaints here and elsewhere that Clark was being denied a speedy trial. (Two other major factors in the delays were the examination of hundreds of pieces of forensic evidence and the tight schedules of Clark's lawyers.)
 
While I'm glad he's finally pleading guilty, I wouldn't be surprised if he stubbornly held out until enough damning forensic evidence was finally processed and which, at long last, convinced him he didn't stand a chance of getting away with it.
 
PatientOne said:
While I'm glad he's finally pleading guilty, I wouldn't be surprised if he stubbornly held out until enough damning forensic evidence was finally processed and which, at long last, convinced him he didn't stand a chance of getting away with it.
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I think that you're right about his holding out.

In any case, it's now official: The plea has been changed:

http://www.wfsb.com/news/27224956/detail.html

Presumably, we will hear what Clark and the victim's family and husband-to-be have to say at the sentencing hearing, whenever that might occur.
 
Her bra was pushed up, her panties were pulled down and they found his semen on her. Like I said before the discussion went completely off the rails, stangulations are overwhelmingly crimes of passion. There almost had to be a sexual component to this tragedy.
 
I am always relieved when a defendant pleads guilty and keeps the family from having to deal with a trial and endless appeals, as long as they have accepted the sentence and do not feel cheated. I doubt he will get parole and 44 years is a long time. Saves lots of money and hopefully saves Annie's family some heartache.
 
From Brian Vitagliano and Jesse Solomon, CNN
March 17, 2011 12:55 p.m. EDTNew Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Yale University lab technician pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and attempted sexual assault in the killing of graduate student Annie Le in 2009.
Raymond Clark III will be sentenced to 44 years in prison as part of the plea agreement.
In court Thursday, prosecutors described injuries to the victim and evidence of attempted sexual assault.
Le, 24, was strangled to death. She had a broken jaw and collarbone, the prosecution said. Clark's DNA was "all over" the crime scene, including in her underwear, the state charged.
Le's body was discovered inside a wall of a Yale lab building four days later after an extensive search by the FBI and police.
Clark, 26, admitted the facts as the prosecution presented them but pleaded guilty under a legal precedent that allows him to do so while still officially protesting his innocence. more at link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/17/connecticut.yale.murder.plea/?hpt=Sbin
 
slowpoke said:
from the article:
"Besides admitting to murder, he confessed to a charge of attempted sexual assault."

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/...lark_says_guilty_to_killing_annie_le/id_34802
Click to expand...

Until now, the fuller dimensions of this horrific murder have not be released. Poor Annie Le's last moments must have been terrifying:

" Clark pleaded guilty to the sexual assault charge under the Alford Doctrine. That means that he doesn’t necessarily agree for the record that he tried to sexually assault Annie Le, but that he acknowledges the state has enough evidence to convict him of the charge.

Prosecutor Strollo told the court that Annie Le’s body was found with her bra pushed up and her panties pushed down; her shoes and socks were off. And investigators found semen on her panty liner, Strollo said. He said semen from elsewhere at the scene definitively matched Clark’s DNA.
Le also had a broken jaw and collarbone, and a bruise at the back of her head, Strollo said. The medical examiner concluded those injuries happened while Le was alive, he said. "

I am pleased by the length of the sentence; I feared a much, much shorter sentence for manslaughter.
 
x_files said:
Thanks for your post. I wondered if it is a sexually driven crime or one out of anger.
Either way it seems her upcoming marriage pushed him over the edge.
How horrible.
Click to expand...

Hi, x files, and thanks; I think that most sex crime murders erupt out of anger and the urge to control, not pure lust. I could be wrong, but I doubt that her upcoming marriage was a factor at all. I suspect he had festering resentment that this petite, attractive, sexy woman had higher status in the lab than he did and that with her pre-wedding schedule in overdrive, she had very little time for his punitive lectures on rodent feces.

As you say, this was a terrible crime which crushes several families. Annie Le was a talented woman whose research was focused on saving lives.
 
IMO hostility and control don't necessarily preclude sexual attraction as a motive for rape, especially in a case where the perpetrator is familiar with the victim.

I'll never believe the timing of this horrible crime was merely coincidental with Annie's imminent marriage. And although I'm glad he pleaded guilty, I regret that we may never be privy to info that is generally revealed only in trial, particularly regarding motive.

And so I'll forever wonder if summoning Annie on that fateful day, presumably/ostensibly to discuss lab protocol, was a desperate ruse indicating some degree of pre-meditation.
 
PatientOne said:
IMO hostility and control don't necessarily preclude sexual attraction as a motive for rape, especially in a case where the perpetrator is familiar with the victim.

I'll never believe the timing of this horrible crime was merely coincidental with Annie's imminent marriage. And although I'm glad he pleaded guilty, I regret that we may never be privy to info that is generally revealed only in trial, particularly regarding motive.

And so I'll forever wonder if summoning Annie on that fateful day, presumably/ostensibly to discuss lab protocol, was a desperate ruse indicating some degree of pre-meditation.
Click to expand...

Hi PatientOne; it's always good to read your thoughtful posts. I agree that sexual attraction is part of the mix, but I think that in cases like this, it builds over time as resentment, especially in male control freaks like Clark. Certainly, he would have been attracted to her (We're talking about a guy who belonged to the Asian Club in high school), but I think that it's likely that the incident began with the confrontation suggested by the email and escalated from there. Annie's upcoming marriage probably didn't mean much to Clark, who was engaged himself; it certainly meant everything to her. She was on a very tight schedule, trying to keep her part of this very intricate lab project up to date, sort out remaining wedding business, and wrap up other things. She would have had little patience for his intrusion into her busy day.

I also think that by not admitting to an attempted rape, but acknowledging that the prosecution could prove it in court, Clark was in a sense insisting in a cowardly way that sex was not his primary motive. Most of us, on the other hand, would regard homicide as the more serious crime.

As for premeditation, I think that killing and raping (or attempting to rape) someone in an occupied building during the work day and then completely failing to have anything more than a inept, makeshift clean-up and disposal plan argues against that.
 
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