Starblade of "Fuck you, I'm a dragon!" fame stabbed to death.
Some of you may recall the furry Starblade (real name Mathew Finnigan) from this wank in which he was lamenting that nobody wanted to eat him. Starblade was known for various eccentric exploits in the fandom, and recently was apparently afraid that someone was going to kill him. This was mostly dismissed as Starblade being delusional, as was common.

In a chilling turn of events, it has been confirmed through obituaries and Facebook that last week he was stabbed to death by his friend, James Torrey Hill.

To make this post even unfunnier, shortly after the news broke Arcturus posted the following journal to FurAffinity:

"and I can't help but be every so slightly amused.

Starblade, aka Matthew Finnegan, was murdered by a friend, according to news.

Being as someone who gave me a lot of shit, I can't help being a little happy. Even if they're dead, I can't say that I'm sad.

*gets more dewatches ooo*

The responses vary from 'Not cool, dude' to pats on the back for being the only person with 'balls'. He has been suspended for making the journal, but the moderators decided not to remove it as they felt the amount of his watchers giving him the third degree for his statement was a good thing.

Arcturus is no stranger to wank. Previously he was the owner of website that collected furry art and recieved flak for not removing pieces at the request of the original artists. He became known for his nasty attitude towards artists, as well as his epic tantrums when the site was shut down by its host for having 'cub porn'.

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	agent_hyatt 2010-10-04 02:19 am UTC (link)
	I'm kinda wondering why Hill is pleading not guilty. Does he mean he didn't do it, or that it wasn't murder? Probably doesn't make much difference, but if it's the latter, well, he's already gone beyond "asshole", yet that's the one word that keeps coming to me. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	risha 2010-10-04 02:25 am UTC (link)
	Don't lawyers generally tell you to plead not guilty no matter what? (I'm not a lawyer, of course, so my learnings in this area are purely TV-based.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	nights_mistress 2010-10-05 11:42 am UTC (link)
	Definitely not! The way sentencing goes, if you put in a plea of guilty, you get a lesser sentence because you haven't wasted the court's time and forced the victim to relive the experience. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	derryderrydown 2010-10-06 04:32 pm UTC (link)
	You start off pleading not guilty, and then make a deal with the prosecution for a lesser charge/reduced jailtime before it goes to trial. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	catmoran 2010-10-04 02:34 am UTC (link)
	Given the earlier wank, maybe Hill thought he was only doing was Finnigan wanted. (He'd have to be crazy to think that, but still.) Or more likely, his defense lawyer just thinks they've got a shot at reasonable doubt. (Reply to this)(Parent)

atdrake
2010-10-04 02:35 am UTC (link)

Maybe the US system is different, but don't you pretty much have to start any defense with a "not guilty" plea so your legal team has the most plausible deniability and thus maneuvering room to start with, before the introduction of hard evidence points out how laughably ridiculous it is?

Also, I'm flashing back to this particular journal passage that was quoted in the linked wank, and I'm hoping it wasn't some kind of initially consensual playacting gone horribly, terribly wrong.

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alexa
2010-10-04 02:52 am UTC (link)

Yeah, I think it's (at least partly) that you can't believably work backwards from "Guilty" to "Not Guilty". So before you know exactly what the prosecution will do, you proceed as if they've got nothing on you, because it looks the most innocent... and just in case it's actually true. Then, in the event that they have evidence there's no real way to deny, you start working toward a plea bargain or whatever.

(Also: these are my ignorant assclown opinions based mostly on TV shows... NOT A LEGAL EXPERT.)

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issendai
2010-10-04 03:56 am UTC (link)

That's my NOT A LAWYER understanding, too. It's common for people to be caught red-handed (by 15 witnesses, on tape, and handcuffed by police at the scene of the crime) and still plead not guilty. They generally plead that there were extenuating circumstances rather than claiming they didn't do it, period. "Not guilty" is a misnomer--it can mean "not culpable" or "not responsible for your actions" as well as "innocent."

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	alexa 2010-10-04 04:02 am UTC (link)
	And there's always a chance that evidence of the red-handed variety could be ruled "inadmissible", for whatever reason. (Reply to this)(Parent)

pfeffermuse
2010-10-04 05:10 am UTC (link)

By pleading "not guilty" the defendant opens him/herself to a long, drawn out trial by jury, where, if the case is decided against the defendant, the judge is mandated to hand down the maximum sentence. (For a goofy example, just take a look at New York State's horrendous Rockefeller drug laws: plead innocent (even if you're guilty as sin) you'll likely be out in under five years; and yet if you plead "not guilty" (and have no previous prior arrest, not even a parking ticket, and are definitely not involved in drug use) the judge is mandated to hand down punishment for a much longer sentence (something reaching between 12 and 25 years with little chance of parole, via the jury's opinion of deciding on the guilt of the defendant.

Sadly, even the most innocent will accept a plea bargain deal -- even if they might have some ability to pay for legal defence counsel -- but since most defendants rely on a court appointed lawyer, they fail to receive the adequate defense they need, and wind up taking the plea bargain even when they're completely innocent.

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	jat_sapphire 2010-10-04 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	Wait, what? Aren't the options "not guilty," "guilty" and "no contest"? Where is this pleading innocent thing from? I just looked up the Rockefeller law and can find no reference to pleading innocent, and I can't make any sense of what you're saying about pleading innocent = jail term. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

theelusiven
2010-10-05 06:23 am UTC (link)

In some states in the US, there's a subset of guilty plea called an Alford plea, which is basically, "I'm not admitting that I did anything wrong, and I maintain that I'm innocent, but I'm pleading guilty to get this over with, because the government has enough evidence to make a jury believe I'm guilty."

It's as shitty an option as it sounds. The whole system of plea bargaining as it stands is broken, IMO.

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	snarkhunter 2010-10-05 05:06 pm UTC (link)
	That may be so, but without the system of plea bargaining, the justice system would collapse under the weight and strain of the number of cases it would have to try. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snarkhunter 2010-10-05 05:04 pm UTC (link)
	How very reminiscent of the witchcraft pleas... (Reply to this)(Parent)

ladyvorkosigan
2010-10-04 02:04 pm UTC (link)

Well, to be honest, we don't really know, do we? The article - if I read it correctly - said that the police weren't commenting on specifics but that evidence at the scene pointed to Hill. Probably it's unambiguous that he's guilty, but that doesn't seem certain at this point. And add in the fact that we truly don't know, if he did it, there were circumstances that made it self-defense or if Hill is legally insane . . . I hate to rush to the assumption that he's guilty of murder just on the basis of a short newspaper article.

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