Motive Crimes and Other Minds
COMMENTS MOTIVE CRIMES AND OTHER MINDS ADAM CANDEUBt INTRODUCTION Early Sunday morning, March 3, 1991, after a car chase through the Los Angeles freeways, police officers ordered Rodney King to exit his car; King got out of the car and was ordered to lie down on the ground.' A dozen officers soon surrounded him, and one, Stacey Koon, fired two shots from his stun gun at King's chest, without effect.2 Laurence Powell began to hit King repeatedly with a night stick as others joined in. King then rose to his knees and received ten quick baton blows.' As if to ward off the onslaught, King raised his arm and then tumbled to the ground, falling on his stomach.' In all, the officers hit the man at least forty times.5 On Wednesday, April 29, 1992, at the corner of Florence and Normandie Avenues in downtown Los Angeles, rioters stopped an eighteen-wheel truck and dragged its driver, Reginald Denny, out of the cab. Using his right leg, Keith Watson forced Denny's face down to the pavement as others beat him with a ball-peen hammer and other objects. Then, Damian Williams, at a range of three feet, threw a brick that smashed Denny's head. Williams then proceeded to dance what appeared to be ajubilant jig and left Denny bleeding t B.A. 1990, Yale University; J.D. Candidate 1995, University of Pennsylvania. Thanks, as always, to my most valued editor, H.W.C. Thanks to the heroic efforts of the Law Review's Executive Editors: Adam Cutler, Chris Evison, Valerie Kelly, Sandy Stape and, especially, my good friends, Dan Dex and Jennifer Wolgemuth-whose editorial perspicacity often inspires awe.
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