Not exactly news any more, but since overseas readers didn't see it in the newspaper, this web site officially reacts to the last installment in the Jamie Lawson story.
On June 21, the Kingsport Times-News' front-page report of Jason Byrns' trial might have been intended to provoke reactions: "A Tennessee man...failed to have his sentence reduced Friday during a hearing in Scott County (Virginia) court. Jason T. Byrns, 33, of Kingsport, appeared in court after filing a motion to have his 60-year prison sentence reduced on the grounds the punishment was too harsh."
Well, just for the exercise, we could try it the other way round. "Hypothetical J. Doe, of Gate City (Virginia), appeared in the Kingsport court..." Or "H.J. Doe, of Gate City, appeared in the Scott County court..." Or "H.J. Doe, of Kingsport, appeared in the Kingsport court..." Or whatever jurisdictions you care to name. This web site maintains that Byrns was stupid even to bother filing the motion.
We are talking about a drug dealer who was apparently trying to evade arrest, conviction, and most likely a fine and a week or a month in jail when he crossed the Virginia line and found a police roadblock waiting for him there. Apparently guided by some sort of inner demons, Byrns stomped the gas pedal and roared into Scott County as fast as his vehicle would go, deliberately swerving to intimidate pedestrians, fellow motorists, and five other traffic officers. State Trooper Jamie Lawson had been assigned the duty of stopping Byrns, and Byrns rammed Lawson's police car seven times, at speeds estimated to be between 50 and 70 miles per hour (in a residential neighborhood), before he finally shoved the police car into another vehicle parked beside the road. Lawson spent weeks in an expensive specialized hospital unit; the partial disability resulting from damage to his spine is expected to be permanent.
Too harsh, he whined? I know a few Kingsport men who might be persuaded to teach Byrns what "harsh" means...There is no serious dispute that anyone who would rather commit murder than pay a fine should be kept off the streets for as long as there is any chance of his attempting to operate a motor vehicle. Sixty years, starting from age 33, sounds about right. The question is whether the taxpayers can reasonably be asked to feed something like Byrns for sixty years.
On the purely theoretical assumption that, although the Times-News hasn't mentioned it, Byrns may have a relative somewhere who is praying that Byrns may be capable of some sort of spiritual experience, revival, rehabilitation, the development of a human mind that understands why it's better to spend a few weeks in jail than it is to commit murder, the law does require the taxpayers of Virginia to feed Jason Byrns for up to sixty years. There might be some reasonable debate about whether that is "too harsh."
Jamie Lawson was trying to protect people from a homicidal maniac, and he may never "walk free" from pain again. If Jason Byrns never walks out from behind the razor-wire fence again, it appears to me that, to the extent that humans are capable of doing justice, justice has been done.
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After all these years, someone self-identifying as Jason Byrns' sister tried to post a comment making the case for Byrns.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an impartial judge. Members of this web site *saw* Byrns burning through Gate City, and we don't believe that that's how people who are either innocent or rational drive.
However, the position of this web site is that people who may be in denial about their relatives' behavior have the right to freedom of speech. And if "Jennifer Byrns'" comment had not contained filter-triggering words, Google would have displayed it when it was posted; if I'd been aware that Google was storing several hundred comments in a dim back corner of this web site, I would have seen it when it was posted and clicked "display."
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ReplyDeleteHe was made an example of, 60 years for a crime that no one even died is harsh punishment, if the police takes out a citizen he is commended…..drug dealer ? No .. he had 1 dui before this so how would that make him a drug dealer ?? Life isn’t fair , it’s not , but I do honestly think he got a bad deal , really, MURDERS get less time !!!!! Think about that
ReplyDeleteFor the drug charge he wouldn't have got much time. He should have considered that before recklessly endangering all those lives and finally attempting murder.
DeleteI agree, it's unfair that some who succeed in committing murder get less time!
I never said that my brother was in the right at all... But murderers, child molesters, baby killers, and people
ReplyDeleteinvolved in sex trafficking get less time than my brother did.... No I'm not saying in ANY TYPE OF WAY THAT HE SHOULDN'T PAY FOR WHAT HE DONE, AND I COURT HE SAID THE SAME THING.... He even said he was wrong and it was stupid & wreckless, he apologized and was ready to face what he had to face, that's after being beaten so badly after being arrested his family wasn't allowed to see him for months!! Was beaten again after getting to prison so badly it almost killed him he will NEVER be the same person after the guards shackled and cuffed him and beat him.... But of course nothing is done about that shit... And as far as Jamie Lawson, and the other officers NOT ONE of them had dash cam footage out of bran new chargers state boys and SUV's??? Bullshit!!! Every office r that took the stand told a completely different story not one matched... And Mr. Lawson, his testimony was to gain pitybecuz he couldn't walk, but his sister had just gotten off the stand saying thank God her brother was capable of walking, and that's not to speak of what was learned after court by Lawson's ex wife whom moved to a certain place and was overheard talking to another person by a person that works there who came to us with the information learned that will NEVER be brought to light Becuz the law cares not for my brother at all....
I went to school with Jason Byrns! He was very shy and quiet never messed with a soul he mainly stayed to himself! So tell me Priscilla King how do you get that he’s a drug dealer his record is clean! Sounds to me like you are painting a portrait of how YOU want this man to be seen! You’re going on nothing more than speculation! Sounds to me you’re trying to RIZZ this garbage of a book you’re writing!! Jason was an average everyday Joe he’s most definitely no one interesting enough to write book about you calling him a murderer and a drug dealer and a psycho tearing down the streets of Gate City! Here’s a question for you are you infatuated with the mentioned state trooper? He just went through a divorce but you most definitely knew that right? Stop the lame ass dramatics already! if you really must write a book, write it on a subject with more substance! Cause honestly you’re doing a lot of fishing in the dark and making your own accusations up as you go along! Tell me why didn’t you write a book on that chick and that black guy that killed people and was burning them and everything in gate city they even killed Mexicans over in Johnson City before all this happened didn’t write a book about that girl did you or that guy and they’re more of the poster child that you’re looking for for this book not Jason Byrns so Ms Priscilla King stop with this rears fast that you got going on with the shitty book that you’re rotten. It holds no weight whatsoever. All it does is make you and little secret boyfriend look like heroes and you’re clearly not that!! Sincerely, disappointed R. Phillips nothing anonymous about me. I ain’t afraid to tell you the way I feel the way it is and you know it’s this way so stop with a childish shit. Grow up do right by the public and stop painting this horrible picture of a guy who hardly even said a word in school! he clearly helped more people than he’s ever hurt. Maybe you should scrape up that info get the scoop on that
ReplyDeleteHow rumors grow...
ReplyDelete(Yes, I'm Priscilla King. Google is pretending not to recognize me because I'm minimizing cookies.)
(1) If I dated divorced men, I can think of some I would not have advised to go back to their first wives. One who was rich, two who would have made good business partners...
(2) I'm far too old for Jamie Lawson. If he has a "secret girlfriend," it's not anyone I know.
(3) I had no intentions of writing a book about the car chase case. I wrote a blog post because people asked for one, because the newspaper might have been probing for regional resentment and I didn't see cause for any.
(4) This story has no heroes. The law defines a person caught carrying large amounts of illegal drugs as a drug dealer. I define an aggressive driver using a motor vehicle to threaten law-abiding citizens and maim a state trooper as a homicidal maniac who belongs in prison. Maybe he THINKS he's in control and is only showing off like the stuntmen on "Dukes of Hazzard," but he could easily have killed people. People need to recognize reckless driving as a violent crime against persons.
(5) As a hack writer, I research bizarre crimes if paid. As a private person, I'm more interested in little-old-lady topics like books, knitting, animals, and threats to The Nephews' health. But if readers want to read about local crime stories, enough to pay for them, I'll write them.
As for the lack of camera footage and the different ways people saw Byrns driving, from where they were...A good half of Gate City will testify that he was driving like a homicidal maniac. Nobody knew this guy or had any quarrel with him. People saw a car being wielded like a murder weapon and judge the driver accordingly. The only personal interest I have in this story is its moral--DRIVE RESPONSIBLY OR DON'T DRIVE AT ALL.
ReplyDeleteThis web site has had some things to say about a (former) police officer who (was referred to a different job after) said "When I see a Tennessee car, I start writing a ticket," and about local laws that make Tennessee drivers believe that that idjit spoke for Virginia police generally...As a Virginian I like sharing the road with visitors from other places. I want them to enjoy their visit. But that's visitors, not homicidal motorists. I want anyone who swerves a car to threaten a person to spend fifty or seventy-five years in a place where they can't even see another car.
PK