Justice for Jamie
2015-03-19 - by
Off and on the last month I’ve been uncharacteristically uninterested in blogging or even talking about politics. It generally happened after I sat in on the trial of the man who murdered Jamie Kirk Hahn, tried to murder Nation Hahn and in a real sense took the lives of many people in their families.
If you want to know what a murder like this does to a family, take an hour or so off from March Madness or whatever, watch this morning’s sentencing hearing and listen to the statements by Nation and Jamie’s parents. Your heart will break, but you also will be thankful for all that you have in your life right now.
You will see what they’ve gone through since April 22, 2013. You will see what they face for the rest of their lives.
You can imagine what they’ve gone through the four weeks of this trial.
First off, the courtroom’s spectator seats are not built for comfort. Imagine sitting in a hard church pew six or seven hours a day. Some family members sat there every single minute for every single day.
Imagine seeing the autopsy photos and the stab wounds.
Imagine seeing the bloody, brutal kitchen knife that the murderer bought at Harris-Teeter, brought to the Hahns’ home and used to stab Jamie 24 times.
Imagine listening to her voice, the 911 call and the murderer’s confession.
Imagine sitting through the painstaking presentation of what Jamie and Nation suffered that evening and what Jamie suffered in the 30 hours before she died.
Imagine spending every night for almost a month away from your home, staying at a friend’s house or at a hotel, including every weekend for some family members for whom home was too far away.
Imagine sitting through – and, in Nation’s case, going through – the plodding, maddening, repetitive and sometimes offensive cross-examination by Public Defender Joe Arbour. Not to mention Arbour barking “Note my objection!” when the calm, even-keeled Judge Paul Ridgeway sustained a prosecution objection or ruled against the defense.
Imagine then sitting through Arbour’s often-angry and even antagonistic closing argument, shouting several times of the prosecution’s case, “It stinks! It stinks!”
Assistant District Attorney Doug Faucette’s closing argument was calm, methodical and merciless. He quietly reviewed the evidence. He explained what the law means when it says a first-degree murder conviction requires “premeditation,” “deliberation” and “malice.” He closed with a picture taken of Jamie and Nation walking together on the beach, unaware they were being photographed, unaware they would never again walk together on the beach.
The jury got it. They came back with a verdict in about an hour and a half. Court veterans said they had never seen a first-degree murder jury decide so quickly.
Imagine, finally, the strength and the courage it required as the family stood around Jamie’s father, Chris Kirk, with Nation beside him, as Chris read this statement from the family:
“We are gratified by the jury’s verdict, and we are grateful to so many people: the members of the jury; Doug Faucette, Karen Scott, Abbie Lefever, Lorrin Freeman and the entire staff of the District Attorney’s Office; Judge Paul Ridgeway; Detective Zeke Morse and the entire Raleigh Police Department; all of the State’s witnesses; and the many, many friends and family members who have supported and sustained us through the difficult weeks of this trial and these terrible twenty-three months.
“We know that difficult times still lie ahead. We will never be able to fill the hole left in our lives by the death of Jamie. We would give all that we have to have Jamie with us, to see her grow older and become a mother, and to witness the difference she would have made in the world.
“Jamie’s death is a loss not just for our present and future, but for so many who were robbed of so much – the children Jamie and Nation would have parented, the lives that she would have changed for the better, the causes that she would have worked for, and the strangers who would have been greeted by her essential kindness, laughter and smile.
“We will strive to keep her smile, her service and her spirit alive through the work of the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation.”
Posted in General
Justice for Jamie
2015-03-19/
Off and on the last month I’ve been uncharacteristically uninterested in blogging or even talking about politics. It generally happened after I sat in on the trial of the man who murdered Jamie Kirk Hahn, tried to murder Nation Hahn and in a real sense took the lives of many people in their families.
If you want to know what a murder like this does to a family, take an hour or so off from March Madness or whatever, watch this morning’s sentencing hearing and listen to the statements by Nation and Jamie’s parents. Your heart will break, but you also will be thankful for all that you have in your life right now.
You will see what they’ve gone through since April 22, 2013. You will see what they face for the rest of their lives.
You can imagine what they’ve gone through the four weeks of this trial.
First off, the courtroom’s spectator seats are not built for comfort. Imagine sitting in a hard church pew six or seven hours a day. Some family members sat there every single minute for every single day.
Imagine seeing the autopsy photos and the stab wounds.
Imagine seeing the bloody, brutal kitchen knife that the murderer bought at Harris-Teeter, brought to the Hahns’ home and used to stab Jamie 24 times.
Imagine listening to her voice, the 911 call and the murderer’s confession.
Imagine sitting through the painstaking presentation of what Jamie and Nation suffered that evening and what Jamie suffered in the 30 hours before she died.
Imagine spending every night for almost a month away from your home, staying at a friend’s house or at a hotel, including every weekend for some family members for whom home was too far away.
Imagine sitting through – and, in Nation’s case, going through – the plodding, maddening, repetitive and sometimes offensive cross-examination by Public Defender Joe Arbour. Not to mention Arbour barking “Note my objection!” when the calm, even-keeled Judge Paul Ridgeway sustained a prosecution objection or ruled against the defense.
Imagine then sitting through Arbour’s often-angry and even antagonistic closing argument, shouting several times of the prosecution’s case, “It stinks! It stinks!”
Assistant District Attorney Doug Faucette’s closing argument was calm, methodical and merciless. He quietly reviewed the evidence. He explained what the law means when it says a first-degree murder conviction requires “premeditation,” “deliberation” and “malice.” He closed with a picture taken of Jamie and Nation walking together on the beach, unaware they were being photographed, unaware they would never again walk together on the beach.
The jury got it. They came back with a verdict in about an hour and a half. Court veterans said they had never seen a first-degree murder jury decide so quickly.
Imagine, finally, the strength and the courage it required as the family stood around Jamie’s father, Chris Kirk, with Nation beside him, as Chris read this statement from the family:
“We are gratified by the jury’s verdict, and we are grateful to so many people: the members of the jury; Doug Faucette, Karen Scott, Abbie Lefever, Lorrin Freeman and the entire staff of the District Attorney’s Office; Judge Paul Ridgeway; Detective Zeke Morse and the entire Raleigh Police Department; all of the State’s witnesses; and the many, many friends and family members who have supported and sustained us through the difficult weeks of this trial and these terrible twenty-three months.
“We know that difficult times still lie ahead. We will never be able to fill the hole left in our lives by the death of Jamie. We would give all that we have to have Jamie with us, to see her grow older and become a mother, and to witness the difference she would have made in the world.
“Jamie’s death is a loss not just for our present and future, but for so many who were robbed of so much – the children Jamie and Nation would have parented, the lives that she would have changed for the better, the causes that she would have worked for, and the strangers who would have been greeted by her essential kindness, laughter and smile.
“We will strive to keep her smile, her service and her spirit alive through the work of the Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation.”
Posted in General