21 year old Cameron Herrin was sentenced in April to 24 years after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide. Jessica Reisinger-Raubenolt and her 21-month-old daughter Lillia were struck by Herrin’s car in 2018 while lawfully crossing a road in Tampa Bay. Herrin was reported to be driving 102 miles per hour while racing with another car at the time.
Yet online users on the social media stream Tik Tok have been advocating for Herrin’s innocence with a record 2 billion users watching his sentencing and a global online petition campaigning for his release.
Tim Kiely was interviewed by Newsweek International asking whether a strong social media influence could result in any clemency in conviction or a retrial. He said:
“…My view is that the size of the social media stir over Mr. Herrin’s conviction (leaving aside the question of how many of the petitioners are in earnest) is unlikely to make very much difference to this case…in Florida (where Mr. Herrin was convicted) as in England and Wales, the jury are given strict instructions to reach their verdict only according to the evidence they see in court, and not through conducting their own extra-procedural ‘research’. This will affect both the decision to convict and subsequent sentence….
“It’s for that reason that the court is best placed to make a determination as to whether Mr. Herrin can be convicted. It has made its decision. If Mr. Herrin or his lawyers believe he has a legal basis for appealing it, there are channels through which they may do this.”
Read full piece here: [Newsweek]