Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Quilt show delays capital trial in Mahmoudiya case

I am loath to bump the No Man's scoop from the top of CAAFlog, but I heard this story on the radio on the way home and had to share.

The federal capital trial of former Army Private Steven D. Green arising from the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Mahmoudiya and the murder of the girl and her family has been delayed for two weeks because the National American Quilt Show is in Paducah, Kentucky at the same time the trial was originally scheduled to start. The quilt show is expected to tie up all the hotel rooms in Paducah, leaving none for trial participants and observers.

Here's a link to an AP story about the delay.

9 comments:

Christopher Mathews said...

I'm sure the friends and (remaining) family of the victims will understand. One must set priorites, after all.






(and yes, that was snark)

Anonymous said...

You did mean "both" hotel rooms?

/snark

I suspect the friends and remaining family would like to be able to get hotel rooms, too.

Anonymous said...

Not only would the friends and (remaining) family like hotel rooms; they would probably want airfare as well. It would otherwise take a long time to drive from Mahmoudiya to Kentucky.

Bonnie B - The Quilting Tangler said...

Even though the media got the title of the show wrong, the American Quilter's Society's annual quilt show brings 35,000 visitors to Paducah for this event. The AQS quilt show has been scheduled on this date for 8 years, so someone just didn't look at schedules and availability of hotel rooms when they scheduled this trial. Quilters from 46 states and 13 other countries have entered their quilts in the AQS Quilt Show - one of the largest quilting events in the world - we give $120,000 in cash awards to quilters in the contest. Hotels are filled for 40 miles in every direction from Paducah...so they aren't kidding when they say they won't be able to find hotel rooms for the trial participants. We might live in a small city but this is a Big Time quilt show that has an economic impact of $20 million on this community.

Bonnie B - who just happens to be the Show Director for this event.

ThisCharmingMan said...

Would this count as excludable delay?

Anonymous said...

Please respond, C. Matthews. This time without snark perhaps.

Christopher Mathews said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christopher Mathews said...

(I must remember to use the HTML tags correctly, or at least remember that preview is my friend)

A response to anonymous: If the hotels are filled for 40 miles, look for one 41 miles away.

You don't tell people that the day of reckoning for their murdered child has to be put off for a quilt show.

Anonymous said...

The trial, even with its two week delay, is over a year away. With logisitics being as difficult for all parties, witnesses, and family members based on the trial's somewhat isolated location, why make things more difficult by having everyone being billeted at least an hour away? Why not make a simple change now and avoid the headaches? It's not as if this change was made two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. There's still a full year to go, with potentially more delays to come.