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Saturday, September 17, 2016

Last Night's ABC News 20/20 Program On The Dan Markel Murder:  In-Laws & Outlaws

2020

ABC reports that one of the alleged hit men (Luis Garcia) is negotiating with prosecutors to provide evidence implicating others in Dan Markel's murder in exchange for a reduced sentence in his case.
[See update below: Garcia's lawyer denies this and law enforcement reportedly planted this with 20/20 to spur plea negotiations.]

(Click on YouTube button on bottom right to view video directly to avoid interruption caused by blog's refresh rate.)

Update:  Above the Law, The ABC News ’20/20′ Segment On The Dan Markel Murder Case:

Let’s start with the bombshell that ABC News saved for the very end: the claim that Luis Rivera, one of the two alleged hitmen, is cooperating with the police and negotiating a plea deal. If true, this would constitute a major break in the case.

Alas, it appears not to be true. After the broadcast aired, a source close to the case told me that Rivera is not cooperating and that law enforcement floated the claim to 20/20 to see if it might shake anyone. To follow up, I reached out to Rivera’s lawyer, Chuck Collins. He denied the report to me: “While plea negotiations are always discussed, my client has never spoken to law enforcement or the State Attorney. We are preparing for our October 24th trial.”

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/09/last-nights-abc-news-2020-program-on-the-dan-markel-murder-in-laws-outlaws.html

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Comments

Hopefully justice will be served and the dangerous people involved will be incarcerated and kept away from the rest of society.

Posted by: Jan | Sep 18, 2016 6:01:08 PM

@LawProf

I've been thinking about this recently. I've come to the conclusion that we have a market failure and that the government needs to step in to correct it. I do NOT want to nationalize these outlets (TV, print, online). However, I do want the government to Solyndra-style fund objective, old-school news outlets, to drive biased, infotainment outlets out of business (or snap them back to reality). The future of the Republic hangs in the balance.

Posted by: Anon | Sep 18, 2016 1:12:22 AM

Alright, I've actually looked at a few stories and some videos and whatnot.

BROTHER (+ HIS WIFE)

/end story

Posted by: Anon | Sep 17, 2016 5:26:34 PM

But was there any evidence of intent? That's critical.
/s

Posted by: Hillary | Sep 17, 2016 12:32:38 PM

I'm glad this story is getting the attention it deserves. I was incredibly disappointing, however, at how "cute" they tried to be when presenting the story. It was almost like it was a funny joke to them. I recall when 20/20 was a serious news program.

Posted by: LawProf | Sep 17, 2016 12:23:18 PM