One day after the mistrial in the Christopher Deedy murder case, the city prosecutor is firing back at critics. Keith Kaneshiro says prosecutors also have every intention of putting the federal agent back on trial for second-degree murder. Kaneshiro says the manslaughter option was based on the judge’s ruling. As for the trying the case himself, he says deputy prosecutor Janice Futa was perfectly capable and will try the case again. “We fully intend to retry the case a second time,” Kaneshiro said. Kaneshiro made it clear that he expects Judge Karen Ahn to rule that there will be a retrial. And there will be no changes as to what to charge Deedy. Kaneshiro says he agrees with the judge’s decision that there was no basis to include manslaughter as an option, which is why prosecutors never asked for it. “The judge looks at the evidence. The judge made her decision on evidence and it’s the judge’s ruling to make a decision on what jury instructions are to be admitted based on the evidence,” Kaneshiro said. Kaneshiro also addressed the critics who said that prosecutors should have argued for the judge to allow the jury to consider manslaughter. “People who talk about the case, they’re not sitting in the courtroom every day, they’re not listening to the witnesses every day. They do not know all the evidence of the trial,” Kaneshiro said. Legal experts have also criticized Kaneshiro for not trying the case himself. “Janice Futa is an excellent trial attorney. She has tried numerous murder cases. If you look at the legal experts talking to you folks, she tried more murder cases than they tried together,” Kaneshiro said. Kaneshio says Futa has tried more than 20 murder cases, although he admits it has been several years since the last one. Throughout the trial, Kaneshiro says he was constantly informed about the decisions being made. KHON2 spoke with Deedy’s attorney, Brook Hart. He agrees with Kaneshiro that there is no evidence to support a manslaughter verdict
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 07:21:55 +0000
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