Trial and Conviction
His subsequent trial in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was condensed to a five-day morning to twilight event to accommodate presiding Judge Ralph W. Powers' upcoming vacation plans, and held only two and a half months after Bremer shot Wallace. It began on July 31, 1972. The defense argued that Bremer was a schizophrenic and legally insane at the time of the shooting, and that he had "no emotional capacity to understand anything", but the jury rejected this argument after the prosecution countered that he was perfectly sane. Arthur Marshall, for the prosecution, told the court that Bremer, while disturbed and in need of psychiatric treatment, was sane, knew what he was doing, had been seeking glory and was still sorry that Wallace had not died. Marshall said that Bremer "knew he would be arrested.... He knew he would be on trial."
On August 4, 1972, the jury of six men and six women took 95 minutes to reach their verdict. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison for shooting Wallace and three other people. After being convicted, when asked if he had anything to say, Bremer replied, "Well, Mr. Marshall mentioned that he would like society to be protected from someone like me. Looking back on my life I would have liked it if society had protected me from myself. That's all I have to say at this time." The sentence was reduced to 53 years on September 28 after an appeal.
Read more about this topic: Arthur Bremer
Famous quotes containing the words trial and, trial and/or conviction:
“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
—Edward C. Banfield (b. 1916)
“Between us two it’s not a star at all.
It’s a new patented electric light,
Put up on trial by that Jerseyite
So much is being now expected of....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“I believe it is the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably superior to his companion in some faculty. His want of skill in other directions, has added to his fitness for his own work.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)