No death penalty in Sean Taylor case

Sporting News staff reports

The four men charged in the murder of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor will not face the death penalty, the Fort Myers News Press reports. Rather, prosecutors are asking for life in prison without parole.

Florida lawyer and Taylor family spokesman Richard Sharpstein explained to the Washington Post that the prosecutors' decision is no surprise to the Taylors. The crime was committed in Miami, and Florida law prohibits the death penalty in cases where the shooter is a juvenile -- even if co-defendants are not minors. Eric Rivera Jr. is the alleged shooter in the Taylor case, and he was 17 at the time.

Rivera, Venjah Hunte, Jason Scott Mitchell and Charles Wardlow are charged with first-degree murder in the November murder of Taylor. Mitchell also was 17 at the time of the robbery attempt and shooting at Taylor's home; Hunte was 20, and Wardlow was 18.

The murder trial is set to begin Aug. 25.

While the investigation continues, Marvin Harrison told the Indianapolis Colts that he was not involved in a shooting last month in Philadelphia.

Marvin Harrison

Harrison

The Indianapolis Star reported on Tuesday that Harrison delivered that message to coach Tony Dungy and team president Bill Polian. A gun that Harrison owned has been linked to the shooting in the player's hometown in which a man suffered a gunshot wound to his hand and a small boy was cut on the face by flying glass from a windshield.

"At this point I'm keeping my fingers crossed," owner Jim Irsay said, according to the newspaper. "We've done everything we could do in our diligence to try to discern what happened. He said he was not involved in that shooting and & the authorities have said there is nothing imminent.

"You hope these things hold up to be true, that there won't be any charges and there wasn't any involvement. Until we hear more, this isn't even a case of innocent until proven guilty because there hasn't been a charge yet."

Six of the bullet casings found at the April 29 shooting near Harrison's car wash were from his gun, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio reported last week. But Harrison is not considered a suspect at this time.

"It's an ongoing investigation and we are following leads wherever they take us," Lt. Richie Brown, a Philadelphia detective, said, according to the newspaper. "Mr. Harrison is cooperating fully with the police department."

Clif Lee and Brandon Webb (as goombah mentioned in a previous post) have been pitching out of their minds so far. The question is how long will it last?

Go Penguins!

TRIBE!!! TRIBE!!! TRIBE!!! TRIBE!!! TRIBE!!! TRIBE!!!

"Maryland, my Maryland" was sang before the post of The Preakness. I have to tell you, I've never heard that verse of the song in my life.

I don't think I'd want to be the jockey on a horse named, "Icabob Crane".

Big Brown wins easily. He's like a dog that wins The Westminster dog show, he's prancing and prickling his ears. He really is a beautiful horse.

Sorry, SB. Yankee bravo didn't win.

That seems to be something of a theme this year.

The home runs are really flying out of Fenway today. Surprisingly none hit by Manny. I guess he's pacing himself to get #500.

I don't think this game will be decided on who won, more so who lost the least.

Congrats to Jon Lester on his no hitter. Just think, a few years ago he was going through a life threatening situation.

WTG!

It was nice to see Lester get the no hitter. It's the "feel good" story of this young season. he also got the win in the clinching game of the World Series. The only other pitcher I can think of who has won a clinching WS game and pitched a no hitter is Sandy Koufax. There are probably a couple others.

Don't forget Bob Gibson, Klyd. He no-hit your Pirates at Three Rivers back in '71, and won game 7s in both the 1964 and 1967 World Series.

You're right. Gibson did throw a no hitter. But I've never been a Pirates fan. I've been a Phillies fan forever.

Oh, that's right. Olivant's the Bucs fan.

My brother has always been a Pirates fan, and he and I would argue all summer long as they and the Phillies were divisional rivals then.

Hey, that's like me and my brother. He's a HUGE Yankee fan. Plus, we grew up down Fordham, so I had the whole neighborhood to contend with.

What are The Orioles doing beating The Yankees 10-0 in the 3rd inning. And Moose only went 2/3's of an inning.

I don't care how you slice it up, that's just Uggggggggg-leeeee.

I was listening to the ball game last night and the radio announcers were talking about The Red Sox. The remarked on Jason Varitek catching his 4th no-hitter the other night with Jon Lester. So, little trivia time. Who are the other 3 pitchers Varitek caught a no-hitter with.

And for my own personal knowledge, what other catchers have caught 4 or more no-hitters?

Not as the home team.

I would love if M&T Bank stadium would one day host the Superbowl. I'd definitely be hocking something to get a ticket. Oriole Park hosted an All Star game one year, so that would be nice.

If New York City had a domed 100,000 seat arena, they could pretty much just have it here every year. Why would anyone want to go anywhere else?

Oakland vs Detroit?

Nah, it'll Be Indy vs ...someone.

Has a team ever played the Super Bowl at their home stadium?

Never, but you never know.

I haven't got a clue.

Clay Buchholz, Derek Lowe, Hideo Nomo (against the Orioles).

Why did I know you'd get that SC.

Honorable mention also to Schilling and Pedro who both had no-hitters into the 9th, but lost it.

Schilling had two outs in the 9th and kept shaking off Varitek's signals. He gave up a single on a pitch that Varitek didn't want.

Varitek should have punched him then.

That goes to show you how great a catcher Varitek must be, and why he's the captain. He knows his schiit.