Norwegian student risks 35 years in jail in the US - made a wrong turn

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145. Interesting

First of all, thanks for good discussions. I'm never active in forums like this, but this case really got to me, and good to see discussions without too much 'those american idiots' etc.

I would very much learn more about this as I've gotten most of my knowledge from Norwegian Newspapers. Based on the arcticles, I'm totally shocked, the whole thing seems unreal. It is like a move about some evil small-town and the poor stranger. cocernedinaz - I appriciate that you are trying to tell the other side of the story, but I have to say it doesn't help much. You have seen and will post public documents that will enlighten us, and prove that he at least deserve 7.5 years, but where are the docs. Only thing I've seen is something that looks like small-town gossip and things that is a result of wrong translation.

At this point I thrust Norwegian media more than you (even though I'm generally sceptical). However, VG (largest paper in Norway) has a lot to loose, if the story don't hold at all. You very rarely see total nonesense being printed, at least when it comes to facts which could easily be proven wrong. Then the journalist responsible would probably get fired.

I followed the sentence yesterday, where both John, his mother, and several witnesses could speak, and it was nothing there that pointed towards an intention to kill somebody. The whole thing totally lacked substance with the witnesses basically saying he was going to kill them, and that their children had changed behaviour and was traumatized, without any real evidence or explonation. I found John's explonation very sensible (but that's maybe because I only have some media arcticles to rely on)

We don't have a lot of facts, but this should be a few that shouldn't be wrong:
* The only one with sever damages was John, all other people got away (exept the toe). If there were any major damages, we would have known by now I would think. And local media would have covered it.
* The motive for going up that street was purely to get his stuff from this Auto shop to start with.
* At some point John had to go into panic mode - most likely after getting beaten up (this is an assumption, but I would panic after that)
* He was with his 68 year mom - I would protect her if I thought she was in danger and try to drive off.
* His mom, even though sitting beside him, walks free without charges.
* He drove off, probably breaking several traffic rules, but called 911 as soon as he got away.
* Main witnesses in the trial was related in some way (this is from Norwegian Media, but also easy to prove wrong, so I doubt it is), and the main witness was the same guy that punshed him (he would probably get problems if John was proven not guilty)

It is extremely hard for me, with the current info, to believe that this guy did anything other than to drive the wrong way, get extremely scarred , and probably put the public in danger as a result. If he wanted to hurt somebody, he would have done it. It should not be that difficult, when you have a lot of people around you.

It is almost like I hope we can get some info that justify 7.5 years in jail, because I hate injustice like it seems now. Major injustice. I think I know small towns like this better than most, and it does not surprise me hearing about how people react (even though it seems insane to me). However, what is really surprises me is the way the police and legal system have handled it.