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FAST FACTS:
( Little Rock, AR 7/30/2010) Lawyers for a doctor accused of masterminding a bombing that disfigured the chairman of the Arkansas Medical Board opened their defense Friday, hoping to show that prosecutors "cobbled together" a theory when they couldn't link the physician to the bomb or the scene.
Fingerprints found on bomb fragments don't belong to Dr. Randeep Mann and an eyewitness says a man she saw near the chairman's car before the explosion wasn't the man who's now on trial. The government hopes jurors will connect the dots in a puzzle that includes a little bit of a picture here, another fuzzy portion there.
Prosecutors say Mann was motivated by revenge to attack Dr. Trent Pierce outside the chairman's West Memphis home.
The medical board took away Mann's right to prescribe addictive narcotics after hearing complaints that several of his patients died.
At the time of the bombing, the board was investigating whether Mann continued to distribute controlled substances after its decision, which could have led to Mann losing his medical license.
And in its case the government noted Mann's access to weapons. Mann owns a million-dollar collection of guns and other weapons, including two launchers he sometimes used to fire practice grenades into the lake behind his home.
The bomb used in the attack was made from an MK3A2 hand grenade duct-taped to a spare tire.
Defense lawyer Jack Lassiter called the prosecution's case "cobbled together to create a theory about this bombing.
These circumstances could be rearranged to reach another theory."
Prosecutors acknowledged in their opening statement that they couldn't prove Mann planted the bomb, and they haven't charged anyone with aiding Mann in the attack.
"You won't hear any person say they saw him," prosecutor Karen Whatley told jurors.
But they have plenty of circumstantial evidence. A grenades manual was found in Mann's home, a friend said Mann told him he wished he could kill board members, and Mann once e-mailed a photo of Pierce to his brother.
A jail inmate testified that Mann offered him $50,000 to kill Pierce.
"This case is not complicated. It is a case about a man ... who was intent on harming someone else based on what he had available to him," Whatley said.
Felecia Epps, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said it would be unusual but not unprecedented for juries to convict defendants with little or no forensic evidence.
- Dr. Randeep Mann is on trial for a bombing that nearly killed Dr. Trent Pierce
- Mann's trial has been going on for three weeks. Prosecutors wrapped their case Wednesday
- Defense attorneys say there is no physical evidence of guilt
( Little Rock, AR 7/30/2010) Lawyers for a doctor accused of masterminding a bombing that disfigured the chairman of the Arkansas Medical Board opened their defense Friday, hoping to show that prosecutors "cobbled together" a theory when they couldn't link the physician to the bomb or the scene.
Fingerprints found on bomb fragments don't belong to Dr. Randeep Mann and an eyewitness says a man she saw near the chairman's car before the explosion wasn't the man who's now on trial. The government hopes jurors will connect the dots in a puzzle that includes a little bit of a picture here, another fuzzy portion there.
Prosecutors say Mann was motivated by revenge to attack Dr. Trent Pierce outside the chairman's West Memphis home.
The medical board took away Mann's right to prescribe addictive narcotics after hearing complaints that several of his patients died.
At the time of the bombing, the board was investigating whether Mann continued to distribute controlled substances after its decision, which could have led to Mann losing his medical license.
And in its case the government noted Mann's access to weapons. Mann owns a million-dollar collection of guns and other weapons, including two launchers he sometimes used to fire practice grenades into the lake behind his home.
The bomb used in the attack was made from an MK3A2 hand grenade duct-taped to a spare tire.
Defense lawyer Jack Lassiter called the prosecution's case "cobbled together to create a theory about this bombing.
These circumstances could be rearranged to reach another theory."
Prosecutors acknowledged in their opening statement that they couldn't prove Mann planted the bomb, and they haven't charged anyone with aiding Mann in the attack.
"You won't hear any person say they saw him," prosecutor Karen Whatley told jurors.
But they have plenty of circumstantial evidence. A grenades manual was found in Mann's home, a friend said Mann told him he wished he could kill board members, and Mann once e-mailed a photo of Pierce to his brother.
A jail inmate testified that Mann offered him $50,000 to kill Pierce.
"This case is not complicated. It is a case about a man ... who was intent on harming someone else based on what he had available to him," Whatley said.
Felecia Epps, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said it would be unusual but not unprecedented for juries to convict defendants with little or no forensic evidence.
