BREAKING: #DanaRivers motion for new trial rejected. Afterwards, Rivers was sentenced to multiple terms of “25 years to life” in prison, including one without the possibility of parole. Rivers will spend life in prison, in other words.

I’ll offer more details later today. 1/ Today's proceedings began with the Judge discussing Rivers' request for a new trial. There were 26 complaints that Rivers made involving a misdirected jury, prosecutorial misconduct, and "insufficient evidence." The Judge went over them and dismissed them all as petty. 2/

The People vs. #DanaRivers, 11-9-22 (week 2 day 4): This was the most dramatic day so far imo, in terms of lawyers going at each other with objections, as well as the witness testimony. It's also apparently the last day of evidence, which is why we got out early. 1/ The day starts on an almost comical note. Instead of continuing with Sandra, an expert witness testifies virtually on screen at home with a crying baby. He is an expert on the ethnography of tattoos and teaches in Criminal Justice sciences at Illinois State. 2/

The People vs. #DanaRivers, 11-9-22 (week 2 day 3): This day started slow, but got exciting later, so please read through the whole thread 🧐. Day starts with defense doing cross-x of ballistics expert Lau. Mostly just technical questions, nothing significant imho. 1/ Next witness is Timothy Latibeaudiere from the Oakland Police Department. His testimony was very brief --- he just mentioned how he discovered a bloody orange lighter near the bloody fence at the victims' house. There were also footprints nearby. 2/

The People vs. #DanaRivers, 11-8-22 (week 2 day 2): first witness is Dr. Tom Rogers, who did the autopsies on Reed and Diambu in the coroner’s office. He goes through the various injuries found on Reed, with graphic images of them. He says there were blunt force injuries, stab 1/ wounds, and 2 gunshot wounds. The gunshot wounds had “stippling,” or marks from gunpowder that are present when the gun is fired close to the victim. Also, they both had hemorrhaging, meaning Reed was still alive when shot both times. 2/

The People vs. #DanaRivers, 11-7-22 (week 2 day 1): Criminologist Helena Wong, who did the DNA testing of the case, continues her testimony. Prosecution asks Wong if she can tell Rivers is trans based on DNA. Wong says yes because DNA reveals "biological gender," 1/ which is male in Rivers' case. This is the first time during the trial that Rivers' trans status is disclosed. Wong & the prosecution go on to talk about the results of DNA tests taken of blood stains from the scene of the crime, as well as from items at the crime scene. 2/

Today I attended opening statements for the Dana Rivers trial. One thing that is surprising is that the defense is NOT using the insanity defense, at least not so far. They genuinely want to show there isn't enough evidence. How are they doing that? 1/ They point out that Dana Rivers' DNA is not found on the firearms. They claim that the fact that Rivers used gloves isn't sufficient, because Rivers' had a cut and was bleeding all over the house. They also said that DNA from an unknown person was found in the house 2/