In a Just World, You'd Be Charging Her Head with Murder!

[Trigger warning for violence.]

Every defendant has a right to and deserves a vigorous defense, but sometimes this shit just makes me want to scream: George Huguely is a 22-year-old lacrosse player at the University of Virginia lacrosse player charged with killing his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Yeardley Love, who was also a Virginia lacrosse player. He has admitted entering Love's apartment the night she died, kicking in her bedroom door, and forcing his way into the room.

He then "shook Love, and her head repeatedly hit the wall," said an affidavit filed in the case.

...Mr. Huguely was charged with first-degree murder. But Francis Lawrence, Mr. Huguely's lawyer, said Ms. Love's death was not intentional.

"Until more information becomes available, it is our hope that no conclusions will be drawn or judgments made about George or his case," Mr. Lawrence said, adding that his client was withdrawing from the university. "We are confident that Ms. Love's death was not intended, but an accident with a tragic outcome."

Of course it was. Because Huguely merely "shook Love," and "her head repeatedly hit the wall." It wasn't like he was shaking her specifically to knock her head into the wall! Geez! Her head hit the wall all on its own. I mean, maybe the police ought to be interviewing her head to see why it decided to hit the wall while Huguely was shaking her. Look, all's I'm saying, Your Honor, is that if she didn't want her head hitting the wall, maybe she shouldn't have been sitting so close to it when he attacked her.

I really, really, really loathe the victim-blaming shit that is especially prevalent at trials in which marginalized people have been assaulted and/or killed.