Ray Lewis
Ray Lewis
Ray Lewis was born May 15, 1975 and is a linebacker who has played for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL since 1996. Lewis has been selected to eleven Pro Bowls and been named an Associated Press All-Pro nine times. He won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2000 and 2003; he was the sixth player to win the award multiple times. He was also the second linebacker to win the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award and the first linebacker to win the award on the winning Super Bowl team.
Ray Lewis is known as an unstoppable force on the football field, but why does society seem to separate them selves from him? Following a Super Bowl XXXIV party in Atlanta on January 31, 2000, a fight broke out between him and another group of people, resulting in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were brought to an Atlanta police station for questioning. Eleven days later, the three were indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges.
At the trial, the vast majority of testimony was either inconclusive or supported the defense’s contention that Lewis acted solely as a peacemaker. ESPN legal analyst Alan J. Baverman said, "as to Ray Lewis, there is no evidence that he assisted anybody in a stabbing or encouraged anybody to do a stabbing which would make him a party to felony murder, malice murder, or felony assault with a knife."
Lewis's 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. Lewis was sentenced to one year of probation and was fined $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 since for the crime.
The following year, Lewis
Ray Lewis was born May 15, 1975 and is a linebacker who has played for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL since 1996. Lewis has been selected to eleven Pro Bowls and been named an Associated Press All-Pro nine times. He won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2000 and 2003; he was the sixth player to win the award multiple times. He was also the second linebacker to win the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award and the first linebacker to win the award on the winning Super Bowl team.
Ray Lewis is known as an unstoppable force on the football field, but why does society seem to separate them selves from him? Following a Super Bowl XXXIV party in Atlanta on January 31, 2000, a fight broke out between him and another group of people, resulting in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were brought to an Atlanta police station for questioning. Eleven days later, the three were indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges.
At the trial, the vast majority of testimony was either inconclusive or supported the defense’s contention that Lewis acted solely as a peacemaker. ESPN legal analyst Alan J. Baverman said, "as to Ray Lewis, there is no evidence that he assisted anybody in a stabbing or encouraged anybody to do a stabbing which would make him a party to felony murder, malice murder, or felony assault with a knife."
Lewis's 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. Lewis was sentenced to one year of probation and was fined $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 since for the crime.
The following year, Lewis