I don't even know what to say.
I've mentioned the case of Anthony Trifiletti twice before, once not long after it happened, and then when it resulted in a mistrial. It looks like I never wrote about him after he was finally found guilty, but he was indeed at his second trial, as he clearly should have been.
In the later post, I had summarized the case this way:
Trifiletti, who is a white exurban guy with a gun permit and a loaded gun handy when he drives into the scary cities, shot Douglas Lewis, a Black Saint Paul resident, after they had a fender-bender.
Specifically, Trifiletti went back to his car to get his gun. So not only did he not retreat as he had a duty to in our non-Stand-Your-Ground state, he went out of his way to arm himself and shoot because he was afraid.
Well, guess what just happened. Trifeletti has just been awarded a new trial by the Minnesota Court of Appeals because at his second trial, back in April 2021, a key witness had covid and her testimony from the first trial — including her cross examination by Trifeletti's attorney — was used in transcript form.
Two out of three judges on our state Court of Appeals said the use of the transcript violated Trifeletti's right to confront the witness. Even though it was his own attorney who chose that method (one assumes with his permission), rather than having the witness testify again by video.
As I think anyone knows from reading this blog, I believe in the rights of the accused, but this is some B.S.
The Ramsey County Attorney needs to go to a third trial for this racist jerk because he cannot get away with killing an unarmed man.
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