Ray Lewis ought to know

Here's an interesting news item that I saw earlier today. Ray Lewis is warning us that if there is an NFL lockout this season crime will increase. According to Ray: "Do this research if we don't have a season -- watch how much evil, which we call crime, watch how much crime picks up, if you take away our game."

Here's Ray, in his own words, courtesy of ESPN:
"Ray Lewis discusses lockout issues"
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6575570

Gee, thanks Ray. Well, Ray ought to know. This is a man who beat a murder rap, by the way. Maybe he means that if HE is not playing football he'll murder a few more people.

Okay, that wasn't fair, I admit. He was not convicted of murder. But there sure is a lot of smoke. Just do a search on "Ray Lewis murder" and judge for yourself.


Here is a brief version, from the Ray Lewis Wikipedia page:

Arrest for murder

Following a Super Bowl XXXIV party in Atlanta on January 31, 2000, a fight broke out between Lewis and another group of people, resulting in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. Eleven days after Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were questioned by Atlanta police, the three were indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges. The white suit Lewis was wearing the night of the killings has never been found. Prosecutors alleged that the bloodstained suit was dumped in a garbage bin outside a fast food restaurant.

Lewis claimed that the prosecution knew he was not involved in the murder but chose to go ahead with the case anyway, saying "You don't care if I'm guilty or not. You gonna make sure I go to jail for life."

Lewis' attorney arranged for the murder charges against Lewis to be dropped in exchange for his testimony against Oakley and Sweeting, and a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice.[12] Lewis admitted that he gave a misleading statement to police on the morning after the killings. He was sentenced to one year of probation and was fined US$250,000 by the NFL, which was believed to be the highest fine levied against an NFL player for an infraction not involving substance abuse.

Oakley and Sweeting were acquitted of the charges in June 2000. No other suspects have ever been arrested for the crime.

The following year, Lewis was named Super Bowl XXXV MVP. However, the signature phrase "I'm going to Disney World!" was given instead by quarterback Trent Dilfer.

On April 29, 2004, Lewis reached a settlement with four-year-old India Lollar, born months after the death of her father Richard, preempting a scheduled civil proceeding. Lewis also reached an undisclosed settlement with Baker's family.

Here are a couple more links:

From WikiAnswers.com:
"Did Ray Lewis murder anyone?"
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Ray_Lewis_murder_anyone

And another view, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
"Collier: A fumble in the Super Bowl murder"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04030/267431-150.stm#ixzz1NCxGms8o


May 24, 2011
P.S. It's a small world. Turns out I know one of the lawyers who represented Ray Lewis. He strongly believes that Ray was not guilty of anything other than throwing a punch, and stupidly driving away. He also said that Ray settled when he would have won at trial (if there was a civil case, for instance). Now this could be just his biased point of view. But I guess it just goes to show that it is difficult to find the truth in these situations. Maybe I shouldn't be so skeptical about Lewis.