Crimeatorium
Verdict: The State of Iowa vs Cristhian Bahena Rivera | The Murder of Mollie Tibbetts
14 Jan 2025
Full Episode
Mr. Fries, at this time, you may give your closing on behalf of Mr. Behina.
Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the court. Counsel. Mr. Brown, Mr. Klaver. Molly Tibbetts is truly an innocent victim. She was absolutely an innocent victim here. No doubt about it. This young woman was a spectacular young woman. She was destined to do great things. She was destined to become the change that she wanted to see in the world. She was just about to spread her wings and fly.
We acknowledge that. We sympathize with her family. We offer empathy to them. This young lady was on her way to being someone special. No doubt about it. Absolutely no doubt about it. The loss of Molly Tibbetts is tragic. Absolutely tragic. And the reason I mentioned that. It's because the loss of someone like that can evoke a lot of emotion. And it has evoked emotion.
And that can be a problem when you are sitting as a juror. Because when you're sitting as a juror, emotions have no place in that deliberation room. You don't decide this case based upon emotions. You don't decide this case with emotions tugging at your heartstrings. It's not your job to right a wrong. It's not your job to impart vengeance. It's not your job to bring justice for Molly.
She deserves justice, absolutely. It's not your job. Your job is to do justice. Period. Full stop. Your job is to provide a logical, analytical, almost surgical and mechanical application of what you heard here and the instructions, and that's it. The analysis is simple. The analysis is not whether you go back in that room and decide, I think he did it.
The analysis is much, much different than that. The analysis is whether this table and the people from this table, the government of this state of Iowa, and the people hired by the government of this state of Iowa, and the resources they've produced have brought forth enough evidence to prove this case and each and every element of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
That is a huge standard, folks. That is a high standard and you cannot forget that and you must keep that in the forefront of your mind. It must be right here all the time. You can't be swayed by emotion. You can't let pictures And emotions of those pictures get to you. You must be logical and you must do your job. Judge Yates has told you that. I'm reminding you of that.
I'm not talking at you about it. I'm just cautioning you because that's what justice is. Justice is have they done their job and proven Christian Bahena guilty. beyond a reasonable doubt. Have they proven that man, that young man there, is he a murderer? Have all the elements of murder in the first degree of that young man in the middle been proven?
Like I said, Maui Tibbets deserves justice, but so does Christian Bahena. He deserves justice, and your job is to find the truth, judge the facts, and do justice. Now let's set the stage. It's important that you know all the facts, okay? It's important that you understand where we were in July 2018. A lot of time has passed since July 2018. We've lived through a pandemic.
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