Any real fan will tell you he’s thinking about football more often than not, with random thoughts ranging from the present —who’s going to make the the playoffs this season —- to the great stars of his childhood, like Raiders receiver Fred Biletnikoff. Nothing better to do and this being the 21st century, I did a Google search on Biletnikoff and found some pretty cool images from his playing days, including a few from the ’68 AFL title game vs. the Jets.
I did remember that Biletnikoff’s 20-year-old daughter was strangled to death in 1999, and with that in mind I came across this interesting item from the LA Times:
A federal appeals court threw out the murder conviction in the strangling death of Tracey Biletnikoff, daughter of former National Football League great Fred Biletnikoff, and ordered a new trial for the confessed killer.
Mohammed Haroon Ali’s conviction was overturned by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals because prosecutors had dismissed the only two African Americans in the jury pool and made “wholly unpersuasive” arguments that the decisions weren’t based on race.
Ali admitted to strangling Biletnikoff, then 20, in 1999. He pleaded not guilty at the 2001 jury trial in San Mateo County at which he was convicted and sentenced to 55 years to life for first-degree murder.
His conviction was upheld in state courts, and his federal court petition for habeas corpus relief was denied in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in 2005.
The 9th Circuit panel, made up of three federal judges appointed by President Clinton, sent the case back for retrial.
This case pretty much sums up what’s wrong with our justice system these days. It also seems to me like North Carolina will probably have a backlog of cases just like Mr. Ali’s since the legislature passed the Racial Justice Act.
