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It doesn't matter what your name is!
Feb 2000
time: 00:25
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quote:
HOUSTON (Feb. 13) - The woman who ran down her philandering husband with a Mercedes-Benz after catching him with his mistress was convicted of murder Thursday by a jury that rejected her claim she was aiming for his lover's car.
Clara Harris stood stoically as the verdict was read, her lawyer's arms around her. The 45-year-old dentist faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced, though the punishment could be reduced if jurors decide she acted with ''sudden passion.''
The punishment phase began nearly immediately after the verdict.
Jurors deliberated for just eight hours over two days before reaching their decision. Two of them wept as District Judge Carol Davies read it in court.
The trial has been front-page news in Houston and included dramatic testimony from Harris, from her romantic rival, and from her stepdaughter, Lindsey Harris, who was in the car that day and told jurors her stepmother sped toward her father as he desperately tried to get out of the way. The parents of the victim, David Harris, took the stand, too - to testify in support of their daughter-in-law.
As the punishment phase began, Lindsey Harris returned to the stand and said she attempted suicide several times after her father's death. The judge sent the jury away when Clara Harris began to sob and when they were gone, she cried out to her 17-year-old stepdaughter.
''I'm sorry, Lindsey. I'm sorry, baby,'' Harris cried, earning an admonishment from the judge to compose herself. Defense attorney George Parnham took up for his client: ''She just got convicted of murder.''
Harris had insisted the death last July was an accident and that she only wanted to damage the black Lincoln Navigator belonging to her husband's receptionist turned lover, Gail Bridges.
She told jurors she wanted to save her 10-year marriage after learning of the affair. She said she quit her job, had sex with her husband three times a night, cooked his favorite meals and hired a personal trainer.
She said she even went to a tanning salon and scheduled liposuction and breast enhancement surgery to make him happy, only to catch him in a tryst with Bridges at the same hotel where the Harrises were married on Valentine's Day 1992. David Harris was killed in the hotel parking lot moments later.
Prosecutors called a half-dozen witnesses who said they watched in disbelief as Harris ran over her husband at least twice. David Harris' tooth, found on the pavement next to his head, was introduced as evidence, as were autopsy photos showing what a pathologist said were tire tracks across the body of the 44-year-old orthodontist.
''I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was real,'' said one tearful witness, Chris Junco. ''The whole scene was very mad.''
Perhaps the most powerful witness was Lindsey Harris, who was in the Mercedes.
''She stepped on the accelerator and went straight for him,'' Lindsey Harris told jurors. ''He was really scared. He was trying to get away and he couldn't.''
The teenager said she never thought her stepmother would act on a comment that she could kill David Harris and get away with it. She said her stepmother made the remark just after finding him with Bridges.
''I knew she had killed my dad,'' Lindsey Harris testified. ''She said, 'I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It was an accident.'
''She knew what she did and she wasn't sorry.''
Defense and prosecution experts disagreed on how many times David Harris was struck. A defense expert said Harris was hit by the luxury sedan, carried atop its hood and then run over. A prosecution expert said Clara Harris hit her husband and then circled, running over him at least two times. Clara Harris said many of the events were a ''dream'' to her.
The death came a week after David Harris confessed to his nearly three-month affair with Bridges. The Harrises, who also were business partners, then spent an evening at a bar talking about their relationship.
According to bar napkin notes kept by Clara Harris, David Harris thought his wife was overweight, dominated conversations and was a workaholic, all in contrast to Bridges. While he gave his wife higher marks for ''prettier'' hands, feet and eyes, he described his 39-year-old receptionist, a former beauty queen, as ''petite'' and ''the perfect fit to sleep with, holding her all night.''
Clara Harris said that remark stunned her.
''I couldn't believe he could sleep holding her all night because we had never slept like that - never,'' she testified.
Recalling the day of the accident, Clara Harris wept as she said ''everything seemed like a dream.'' She confronted the lovers in the hotel lobby and brawled with Bridges before returning to her car.
''I was in so much pain; it was a physical pain that I was feeling. I wasn't thinking anything,'' Harris testified. ''Suddenly, I thought about smashing my car against her car and then I (picked) up speed.''
Harris said she saw three figures near Bridges' Navigator. Two dodged right, she said, but her husband moved left, toward her approaching Mercedes. She said she glimpsed her husband: ''I saw some surprised eyes.''
But she denied trying to run him down and said she didn't recall hitting him. ''I think I closed my eyes'' just before impact, she testified.
Harris said she snapped out of her daze as her stepdaughter screamed for her to stop. She got out and saw her husband lying on the pavement, blood streaming from his ears and mouth. |
Lesson Learned: Don't cheat. It could cost you your life, the freedom of your spouse, and the sanity of your entire family.
Sorry no link - got from a friend.
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Shi Huangdi
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Pittsburgh, PA
Apr 1999
time: 00:25
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Here is an example of what I was worried the jury might be thinking like:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/a...RTICLE_ID=30762
quote:
Free Clara Harris!
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Posted: January 30, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Are you ready for the Second American Revolution? Joseph Farah's new book, "Taking America Back" exposes the weaknesses in America's current system and offers practical solutions – solutions that are real and doable, solutions that can revive freedom, morality and justice in our nation. Order your copy now in WorldNetDaily's online store, ShopNetDaily!
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Clara Harris loved her husband. She loved her family – the family she and David Harris, an orthodontist, had built together.
Clara Harris
When she discovered her husband was carrying on an affair with a co-worker, Gail Bridges, a divorcee with three children of her own, she worked hard to rebuild the marriage.
When her husband told her July 24 he was breaking off his affair with Bridges at a dinner engagement that evening, Clara Harris was hopeful and elated.
She hired help to watch the children for a couple days and announced she was leaving to go bring her husband back home.
But, as a woman spurned once, she was not naive. She checked with a private detective she had hired to watch her husband and learned he was not at the Houston restaurant having dinner with Bridges. Instead, the creep was at the very hotel at which Clara and David Harris had married on Valentine's Day 10 years earlier.
Even Lindsey Harris, David Harris' 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, was incensed at her father's treatment of her stepmother. Tearfully, she decided to accompany Clara Harris for a confrontation with the creep.
Clara Harris caught up with David Harris and Bridges in the hotel lobby. She threw a few punches and ripped the blouse of the home-wrecking wench. The creep stood by – apparently afraid to intercede in the fight. A hotel clerk had to break up the fight.
As Clara Harris was escorted from the hotel, the creep mustered the courage to shout to her: "It's over! It's over! It's over!"
This time, the creep was right.
When David Harris emerged from the hotel and tried to get in Bridges' truck, Clara Harris hit the gas on her Mercedes and ran over Harris, shearing the passenger door right off the home wrecker's Navigator. She ran over him a few more times to make sure he was dead.
Then, she apologized to the creep and told him how much she loved him.
Clara Harris is on trial for murder in Houston.
I say: Free Clara Harris. We need more women like her. Live like her.
There is no accountability any more for the kind of wanton irresponsibility David "The Creep" Harris showed toward his wife and his children. There's no penalty any more for adultery, for abandonment of one's spouse and children. The state doesn't get involved – except to divide up the property and sort out custody issues. No one is punished.
And that, I believe, is why America's families are crumbling at such an alarming rate.
People are no longer accountable to anyone. They don't believe they are accountable to God. They don't believe they are accountable to their spouses. And they don't believe they are accountable to their children. They are not accountable to the state, as no-fault divorce laws have made certain.
Since everyone is abdicating responsibility and accountability, there are sure to be more incidents like the Harris affair.
If I were on that jury, I would find Clara Harris not guilty. After she was sprung, I'd give her a medal. She did the world a favor. She may have acted emotionally. She may be sorry for what she has done. But, frankly, she did the right thing. That creep deserved what he got.
Apparently I am not alone in my thinking on this. Even "The Creep's" own parents have stood by Clara Harris' side through this ordeal.
Free this woman now and let her rebuild a life with her poor children – who have been victimized enough by the trauma instigated by the dead creep.
Free her and let her be an example to every cheating husband and wife in America. There is a price to pay. Sometimes it's the ultimate price.
Anyone can make a mistake. Anyone can be tempted into sin. But the creep had a second chance. Now let's give Clara Harris a second chance.
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Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate. |
Fortunately the jury did not have any screwballs like the writer of that article.
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14-02-2003 01:47
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